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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23296210">sweet dreams (hell of a night)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowkissed/pseuds/shadowkissed'>shadowkissed</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Hitman, Beomgyu just wants to pass classes, Blood, Everyone Has Issues, Hitman Choi Yeonjun, Killing, M/M, Minor Character Death, Soobin is very soft but he can fight, They just curse a lot, profanities</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:49:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>74,546</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23296210</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowkissed/pseuds/shadowkissed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“You know what? Someday when I come back to kill you, you’re going to look back to this day and wish you’ve been more bearable.”<br/>“And when I ruin your life, you’re going to wish you didn’t fail the first time you tried to kill me.”</p><p> </p><p>(Choi Yeonjun is hired to kill Choi Beomgyu. He ends the day with a new list of names to kill, and a client who demands too much.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Choi Beomgyu/Choi Soobin, Choi Beomgyu/Choi Yeonjun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>237</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>535</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. funerals (clean kill)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Funerals are the most pretentious event in the universe.</p><p>These people coming to pay their respect are ready with their fake tears and beautifully crafted words, looking like they care.</p><p>Choi Beomgyu has to face countless of these fakers over the span of these few days, sitting there by his parents’ coffins while the some nameless faces try to reassure him that everything is going to be okay. He is the one who should be the most crushed, yet no single drop of tear stains his cheek. These people are probably talking about him; judging what kind of son he is from how many tears he drops.</p><p>Light shower has started to drizzle over the graveyard compound, as if the sky is crying on behalf of Beomgyu. He looks up at the sky, catching a few drops of water on his cheek, just before a black umbrella covers his view.</p><p>“It’s time to go,” his best friend, Choi Soobin, urges him.</p><p>There are not many people left after the service ended. Most of the business partners have left, leaving some family and close friends. Beomgyu doesn’t want to see them, unable to take any more of the sympathizing look especially from the kids who go to a same school as him. Even worse, he doesn’t want to see the pretentious face of his other family members.</p><p>He can already predict the change of their attitude once they find out the alteration of his parents’ will.</p><p>“Beomgyu. Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” a voice interrupts him just as he turns around to go.</p><p>Taking a deep breath, he faces the middle aged male who he recognized by voice alone, putting on his best smile.</p><p>“Yes, uncle. I’m already 18. I know how to take care of myself, and the company business once I graduate. Thank you for your help all this time.”</p><p>Even through the blur drizzle of rain, he can see the flash of disdain crossing Choi Jongho’s face from his words, but he pretends to miss it, opting to fold himself into a ninety degree bow before turning around to leave the place with Soobin on his tail.</p><p>“Did you see his face? Fucking hypocrite,” he only breaks into a smirk once they are inside the car, loosening the tie from around his neck and leaning back on his seat. “That man will have me killed. Mark my word.”</p><p>“That won’t happen as long as I’m here,” Soobin says, eyeing him with a strange look.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Are you not going to cry?”</p><p>He scoffs at the question.</p><p>“I will only mourn them once I’m not busy trying to stay alive.”</p><p> </p><p>The mansion feels just as empty as before his parents’ death, which is normal, because Beomgyu spends most his year staying at the boarding school. It just feels even lonelier now, since he has nothing to look forward to. No more nagging from his mother to fix his grades, or a call to his father’s office where he had to listen to his old man talk about the company.</p><p>They always told him that they were doing it to prepare him for the future. He didn’t think the <em>future</em> would come this soon; the future where he has to go on without them.</p><p>As he seats himself on his father’s chair, everything hits him at once, telling him that it’s <em>real</em>.</p><p>He would have broken down right there and betrayed his own vow if only it’s not for Soobin’s entrance into the office.</p><p>“The lawyer just called. They are already informed about the will,” he informs.</p><p>Beomgyu stares at him for a long moment before he breaks into laughter. His voice echoes through the vacant room, fading out just as he turns the chair around to face the big window behind him. It was something that his father did a lot, and now he has to do it in behalf of the old man.</p><p>“It won’t take long until <em>it</em> happens, then. Are we ready?”</p><p>“Are you ready?”</p><p>No. He will never be ready for this.</p><p>A few days ago, he was just a high school student without any burdens except for his grades. He blinked once, and now he is an adult who has to defend his life. No one deserves to go through this alone.</p><p>At least he has Soobin by his side.</p><p>“Let’s do this, Soob.”</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>“For the record, I’m still <em>not</em> agreeing to this part of the plan,”</p><p>After they are out of the black suits they have to wear throughout the services, Beomgyu is exhilarated to saunter across the city in casual clothing. Instead of rotting away inside the gloomy mansion for the rest of their mourning leave from school, he opts to drag his unwilling best friend to hang out with him. Three days in a row, Soobin has to accompany him to hang out around the crowded shopping street, doing whatever teenager things he wouldn’t be able to enjoy otherwise. He should applaud the guy for putting up with him.</p><p>Soobin has been a constant in his life ever since he can remember. His father adopted the kid when he was five years old. A snotty child who cried a lot back then while Beomgyu fought the bullies for him. No one expected him to grow so tall over the years. Being the overly responsible man Soobin is, he begged <em>their</em> father to make him Beomgyu’s bodyguard.</p><p>It’s safer that way, since they are attending the same classes and living in a same dormitory room at the boarding school. That’s how Soobin became something fixed in his life, and now ended up as the only family he has left.</p><p>“Come on! Loosen up a bit. We’ve been doing this for days and there’s still no movement. Maybe we’re actually safe?” Beomgyu says, a skip on his steps as he spots a mini stall that serves some hotteok.</p><p>“I just think that you’re super careless when you’re having fun. See!” the bodyguard exclaims when he saw a drip of filling melt out of the pancake and drop straight onto Beomgyu’s pristine white shirt. It’s amusing, watching the taller male take care of him like this when it’s not even in his job description.</p><p>“Should we shop for some clothes then?”</p><p>Soobin gives him a look, which turns stern all of sudden and almost sends Beomgyu into an alarmed state. He bites nervously on his snack while the guy seems to be immersed on whatever it is he is hearing from his earpiece.</p><p>“Seven. The number grew from yesterday,” he finally says once he has his attention back on Beomgyu. “It’s more than we expected. We can’t stay out here and be an easy prey!”</p><p>Seven. Seven people hired to harm him.</p><p>It should invoke fear in him, making him shiver and run back into the safety of their mansion. Except it does not. Beomgyu only looks at his best friend with a smile before stuffing the rest of his hotteok into Soobin’s mouth.</p><p>“It’s daylight, they won’t be so brave to launch an attack in the middle of a shopping centre!” he says cheerfully, trying to convince even himself. “We’re going after I get a new shirt.”</p><p>The sun is scorching as they walk across the street. Yet, it doesn’t seem to affect Beomgyu’s mood. Hemstares at the clothes through stores’ display windows, entering one that is selling an exact same shirt as the one he just stained. Meanwhile, Soobin is still alert on his side, standing rigidly while watching him. It’s a useless safety precaution, because nothing happens.</p><p>At least not until they are sitting down for lunch at this Chinese restaurant. Soobin’s already relaxed a little because of Beomgyu’s constant reassurance. It’s disrespectful for the dumplings that Beomgyu hasn’t finished eating, when a loud noise of shattered glass explodes in the background and he finds himself landing hard on the cold floor with his bodyguard on top of him.</p><p>There are screams around them, chaos of people trying to run away from the place.</p><p>Soobin keeps cursing under his breath as he drags Beomgyu out of the way of the stampede, keeping the smaller male sheltered under his arm as they run out of the restaurant and into the car waiting for them outside.</p><p>It’s still chaos back in the street, but the two of them are safe now. Their laboured breathings filled the car, interrupted by some gasps of shock as Beomgyu watched the people running outside the car.</p><p>“I could… those people…. brought danger…”</p><p>“WHAT DID I TELL YOU?” Soobin yells when the car takes off. His brows furrowed as he released his hold around Beomgyu so he can give him his best reprimanding stare. It’s hard to be scared of him now when Beomgyu is still on the verge of having a panic attack.</p><p>“I… I’m—“</p><p>“God, please tell me they didn’t get you,” he frantically checks all over Beomgyu’s front, only to sit back with a relieved sigh when he didn’t spot any blood stain in the new shirt. “This is why I didn’t want you to bait yourself like that.”</p><p>Still shaking, Beomgyu’s hand blindly searches for Soobin’s, finding himself able to breathe properly again after getting a reassuring squeeze from the larger palm. His eyes are falling shut now instead of their former size of saucers from the shock.</p><p>“I’m sorry. I didn’t think they’d really do that in board daylight.”</p><p>Soobin’s voice is soft again, void of the anger he had earlier. He just sounds genuinely tired now. “I’m just glad you’re okay, for now. Seven is too much.”</p><p>“That’s right, but then I have the best bodyguard in the world,” he cracks a smile, feeling his heartbeat evening up after the rush of adrenaline. His mood is turning into a lighter one, and he is making sure that Soobin feels that as well by teasing him. “You looked like you were going to die of fear, though? What will you do if they got me? Are you in love with me?”</p><p>Usually the guy would just flinch away from him and give him a disgusted look, but Soobin is just staring at him with a conflicted look now. His lower lip trapped between his teeth, just before he releases it with a sigh. It’s not working.</p><p>“I really thought I was going to die from fear. If you die… I don’t know what to do.”</p><p>Through Soobin’s words, Beomgyu can feel the severity of the situation. It is not just like any other day of fighting bullies and kidnappers. He barely escaped death, and his bodyguard is the one who is scared for his life. Perhaps it’s time for him to take this more seriously.</p><p>“Soobin,” he calls out, dropping his head to rest his forehead on the guy’s shoulder. “Are we going to be okay?”</p><p>There’s another squeeze on his hand, and then a gentle thud of Soobin resting his head against his own.</p><p>“I’ll make sure of it.”</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>( ∞ )</strong>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>This part of the neighbourhood always reeks of weed and rotten trash.</p><p>There is no sign of movement apart from the flickering street lights and dripping water into the sewer. That is, until someone comes running into the alley. Splashes of water hit by dragged feet, until the wounded figure hits a dead end, wailing in despair when he realizes his demise.</p><p>He falls down onto a puddle of water on the muddy ground, still trying to crawl away even with a few bullet holes in his rotten body.</p><p>Cockroaches are really hard to kill.</p><p>“Pathetic. Did you imagine being in this position when you stole all that money?” Another voice comes from the entrance of the alley.</p><p>The gravels crunch under his boots as he walks slowly to the whimpering figure, enjoying each second of the chase. As the street light flicker back into life above the alley, the owner of the voice comes into view. He is clad in a leather jacket and tight jeans. A smug smile is plastered on his lips as he makes his way to his prey.</p><p>The guy screams when one of the heavy boots makes a contact with his back, sending him flat on the ground with his face smushed into the mud.</p><p>“I already returned the money, all of it! Ask Dr. Kim. He—He really trusts me. He wouldn’t want me to die!”</p><p>“Dr. Kim said to put 7 bullets in your head, though.”</p><p>He is hysterical when the gun comes back into view. Even if he was not paid to kill this roach, the man in leather jacket would do it for free because of his annoyance now. He would have done it quickly, if only it’s not for the vibration coming from his pocket.</p><p>Feeling generous, he opts to take the call first while letting the guy weep for his life.</p><p><em>“Yeonjun, my boy! Are you done with the last kill?” </em>Taehyung’s voice comes from the line, sounding too cheerful for this kind of discussion.</p><p>“You’re asking me if I’m done, less than 10 hours after you gave me his file? You’re too much.”</p><p>
  <em>“I have a new job for you. It’s pretty high profiled, so I want to see if you’re up first before I assign it to someone else.”</em>
</p><p>That caught his interest.</p><p>His eyes locked with the guy once again—still begging for his life—before he pulls the trigger. Sounds of gunshot ripped through the air exactly seven times, and then everything is swallowed by a thick silence.</p><p>“I’m in. The case is mine.”</p><p>
  <em>“See you at the HQ in 30 minutes.”</em>
</p><p>He takes his foot away from the lifeless body, cursing under his breath when he spots a splatter of blood on his boot. It’s nothing to worry about. Nobody is going to discover the man until hours later when the drunks walk out of the bars in search for a place to throw up.</p><p>Blood stains are just a bitch to clean up.</p><p> </p><p>Nobody really visits this headquarters unless there is something important, and Yeonjun likes important matters. Those always bring in the most money to his saving account.</p><p>Despite being a newcomer, Yeonjun climbed up the ranks so quickly. Everyone looks down on him for looking like a teenager, always carrying a guitar case over his shoulder and trying to look so fashionable with his leather jacket. Little did they know, he is a prodigy.</p><p>“Daniel, you’re here.”</p><p>He arches a brow at the sudden usage of nickname. It only happens whenever the customer is present to judge him before signing the contract. True to his thoughts, he can see the person on the screen of Taehyung’s computer. A middle aged man with a mask covering half his face.</p><p>“Let’s get to business,” he says, lowering his guitar case to the floor and resting his weight on it. “Who is the target?”</p><p>To answer his question, his phone beeps with an incoming email. He fishes it out of his pocket, opening the mail to see a case file with the picture and details of the person who is soon to be dead by his hands.</p><p>Choi Beomgyu. The sole heir to a chaebol company who just lost his parents in a car crash.</p><p>After a few cases similar to this, Yeonjun can already assume that this has something to do with inheritance. Especially since the target is still so young.</p><p>“A clean kill is preferred. One shot.”</p><p>“I can do that.”</p><p>“He is going back to school in three days, and if you lost the chance, we’ll have to arrange your enrolment into the institution. It’s one of the safest places in the city, and you can only do it from the inside,” Taehyung adds, apparently ready with a whole plan even the backups.</p><p>So much trouble for such an easy case.</p><p>Yeonjun sucks a breath through his teeth, not appreciating the fact that he is being underestimated by this old man. “I’ll finish him before then,” he says nonchalantly, scrolling down the pdf file to find more pictures.</p><p>Pictures of him with black hair, looking all naïve and young. Then there are pictures of him with blonde hair and multiple piercings, seemingly the current look. Typical rebellious phase of a rich kid. As he scrolls further down, there are also pictures of some other guys with him—probably classmates; but particularly this one tall guy with dimpled smiles.</p><p>“I’ll pay you extra if you can finish Choi Soobin, too,” the voice comes from the computer screen this time. His smile twisted into a smirk at the offer.</p><p>“Deal.”</p><p>With this easy money, he can afford eating beef stew for the rest of the month.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Or so he thought.</p><p>What that old man did not mention is the fact that there will be other people targeting the rich kid, too. These other people are inexperienced idiots who will ruin his fancy meal plan.</p><p>It’s been going smoothly for him. Over the past few days, Yeonjun has disguised himself as a college student (exchanging his black boots with converses, that’s his best disguise) in order to blend in to shopping street frequented by his target.</p><p>As someone who just went through a devastating loss, Choi Beomgyu sure does not look like it. Instead of staying home and mourn, he is enjoying his life to the fullest – visiting various stores and food stalls, single karaoke rooms, and multiple arcades. He looks just like any other teenager who is freed from his study responsibility, and Yeonjun is not feeling bad anymore about killing the guy.</p><p>The insolent rich brat deserves it.</p><p>According to the information in the files, this would be the kid’s last day of leave before he has to go back to the academy.</p><p>Yeonjun has it perfectly planned.</p><p>After watching those two and memorizing the pattern of their hang out plans, they would stop at this Baskin Robin’s store around 7 o’clock, and then a car would pick them up from there. The place is perfect for his mission, with an abandoned building across the street that he can use as a hideout until he has to carry out the kill.</p><p>He even planned to be generous, to let those guys finish their ice cream first before he snipe them. At least their last memory in the world will be a pleasant one.</p><p>Before he can execute his perfectly crafted plan, however, that imbecile of a hitman just had to ruin everything.</p><p>He has been hiding in a balcony of a stationery store, watching as his target eats his lunch happily while his own stomach rumbled. Even from this far, he can see the red dot from the rifle slowly climbing up from the table, shaking a little before it’s fixed on Beomgyu’s head. Anyone would see that, including Choi Soobin who quickly pushed the guy aside before the shot was released.</p><p>The failed shoot totally ruins the whole plan, as his little guy is now safe inside his bulletproof car, on his way back to the mansion.</p><p>Who would shoot their target in the middle of the day unless they are a super experienced sniper? Even worse, it had to be a total miss.</p><p>“Fuck. If only I could kill this dumbass instead,” he searches frantically around the vicinity with his binoculars.</p><p>There he is, the epitome of a failure as a hitman, making a run on an adjacent building’s rooftop. It’s so easy for him just to pick up his rifle and aim for the panicky guy if he were to end him. But it’s not his job.</p><p>His job starts again only later on, as he launches himself over the tall gate of the Choi mansion. It’s a totally risky move, especially being a back-up plan with minimum research of the mansion. Still, he has to do this before the kid is back to the academy’s maximum safety.</p><p>He has disabled the security cameras for ten minutes and memorized the blueprints. There are no guards in the vicinity, probably slacking around since there are not many people left living in this place.</p><p>Yeonjun has done countless of breaking into places with high security and escaping unscathed, so this one should not be any different.</p><p>He got ten minutes to kill Choi Beomgyu.</p><p>The sneak in is going way too smoothly, he should’ve been suspicious about it. It must be the easy money that got into his head, making him too excited with the adrenaline rushing through his blood, as he quietly runs across the corridor leading to where Beomgyu’s bedroom should be. If he still had time, he could pay a visit to the other guy’s room for a surprise. And that extra money.</p><p>Cold air follows behind his nape, following his silent footsteps the closer he gets to the bedroom. He got another weapon ready for this, a smaller gun hiding under his sleeve, complete with the silencer.</p><p>
  <em>A clean kill. One shot. </em>
</p><p>It echoes inside his head over and over again, even when he cracks the door open and walks inside the room. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he spots the furniture first, and then the blanket lump in the bed. It’s such a shame, that cute guys are so easy to kill. The universe won’t leave some behind for him to date.</p><p>His gun is ready now. He just has to point it at where the cute small face would be on top of his pillow.</p><p>What he didn’t expect to see is the swift movement from the bed, shooting up for him and grabbing his shirt before he can react. His gun drops silently onto the carpeted floor while he stumbles into the bed from the tug. The element of surprise lasted for 0.1 second, and then he fights back, landing a punch on whatever it is grabbing him. Still, he’s overpowered, especially when he hears the door slams open and a few more dull footsteps coming in.</p><p>Sounds of cocked guns pointing at him are enough warning for him to stop struggling.</p><p>Without the fight, he is helplessly pinned down to the bed with a knee to his chest. A barrel of gun pressed against his cheek. The light in the room comes to live, and a cold face of a dimpled man greets him instead of a bloody face of a cute blond he expected to see by the end of the day.</p><p>That’s when he knows that he fucked up. He walked straight into their trap.</p><p>“Didn’t your mom tell you that it’s rude to enter without knocking?”</p><p><em>Fuck</em>. This guy is irritating.</p><p>Just the cherry on top to his demise.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>They should have just gone with this motto: <em>One Shot, Clean Kill</em>; and perhaps Yeonjun would thank them from his grave.</p><p>Much to his dismay, he ends up getting tied up to a chair inside the fancy office. The bruise on his cheek stings from where Choi Soobin slaps the gun against his face, which is a totally unnecessary attack. The guy is now glaring dagger a few meters away from him as if he is the one with the right to be angry.</p><p>“Are you really planning to kill me here? It would be a bitch to clean up,” he yells, getting tired from being held in this position for so long.</p><p>“I’d rather clean up than listening to you, god, can’t you shut up for five minutes?”</p><p>Yeonjun laughs, finding amusement in being just as irritating as the guy. He sure can spew some provocation, but inside he does not fancy the thought of dying. Especially not in the hand of these targets he underestimated.</p><p>Having done this kind of job for over a year already, he knows that he would be in this position sooner or later. A lot of other names in his agency have been announced to fail in their gigs and killed, and he remembers paying his respect every other week when he was a rookie. He just never thought it’d come this early.</p><p>It’s really pathetic to die in the hand of rich people. At least the ceiling is beautiful, he sighs as he slouches down on the chair, ignoring the strain on his bound hands as he tipped his head back to stare at the pictures of clouds drawn in the ceiling. He shuts his eyes, then. If he can choose what to see before he died, it would not be the annoying face of Choi Soobin.</p><p>That’s when the door slams open, followed by relaxed footsteps walking into the room that stops right behind his chair. “This is our honourable guest?” the voice comes from above his face.</p><p>When he opens his eyes, he is greeted by an angelic face.</p><p>Okay, that is an exaggeration caused by the adrenaline leaving his body. The face, in fact, is the same one as the many pictures he saw in his files. It’s already etched in his brain, ready to be added to the long list of faces that died by his hands, if only this had been a successful mission.</p><p>“Beom, seriously? Get away from him!”</p><p>“Yeah, because I have this magical power to kill people without my hands and guns,” he spits.</p><p>Beomgyu’s laugh tinkles in the silence of the room. How the guy could look so relaxed when his life is being targeted, Yeonjun can’t comprehend it.</p><p>“The data is right. Someone really hired a kid to kill me,” he says with a sigh, walking away from the chair and stopping across the room right in front of Yeonjun, hoisting himself up to sit on the edge of the big desk. “Do they think I have no resources to protect myself? I’m a little offended.”</p><p>“I’m one of the best,” he snaps defensively, gritting his teeth at the smugness of the boy.</p><p>He even had the audacity to call <em>him</em> the kid.</p><p>“Are you?” Beomgyu cocks his head to a side, a mocking pout forming on his lips. “You wouldn’t even last a minute inside this place if I hadn’t let you.”</p><p>So he did walk into a trap, that’s why it’s so easy. Not to mention, the guy talked about data, which means that they have obtained information about him, too. As if confirming his thoughts, Soobin steps forward with a printed document.</p><p>“Choi Yeonjun, 20 years old, high school drop-out,” he says, punctuating it with a scoff before he continues. “37 kill within the first year of his ‘career’, two of them being an assassination of high profiled names. We’ll be helping those open cases a lot if we send this pest to the cops.”</p><p>“Really? I wasn’t expecting that.”</p><p>“You didn’t read the files…”</p><p>“Are those meant for <em>me</em> to read?”</p><p>If Yeonjun didn’t already hate these two for trapping him in this office, he would hate them for making him sit through their bickering session. He has to mute the conversations because his head pounds with all the possibilities of what he would become; now that his fate is in the hands of a couple of kids. The worst case scenario is being tortured in a basement of a police station and forced to spill information about his agency.</p><p>
  <em>All his friends…</em>
</p><p>“Who hired you?”</p><p>He blinks slowly at the question, eyes locked with the blonde who is staring at him with a more pensive expression.</p><p>“I can’t tell you that.”</p><p>“Choi Yeonjun, I don’t think you’re in the place to withhold and information,” Soobin chimes in from the side.</p><p>“Fuck off, you little family pet.”</p><p>A book hits him square on the face as soon as he said it, making the bruise sting some more from the impact. He curses under his breath, glaring at the boy who just chucked the book at him.</p><p>“You think you’re in the place to speak <em>that</em> way to Soobin? He is a hundred times above the like of you,” the guy looks pissed now. A frown replacing the impish smirk he had on his face earlier as he hops off the desk and walks towards him. “Now, tell me who hired you.”</p><p>“Rot in hell.”</p><p>As if the book wasn’t enough, Yeonjun hears a familiar click of metal before he sees a glint of knife in Beomgyu’s hand as the boy stops right before him. He clenches his jaw, looking at his target straight in the face even as the cold metal meets his neck, tapping gently right above his pulse point.</p><p>“You’re really protecting their lives, now? More than your own?” the guy is standing tall before him now, tapping his chin with the knife to make him look up. “You know who you’re protecting? Those so-called relatives and friends who rejoice over the death of a kid’s parents, then proceed to kill the said kid because they are not getting the money. Do you think they would care about what happens to their little hitman when they don’t even care about their own blood?”</p><p>Yeonjun glares at him. He knows all these already, yet he also knows that it would be dangerous for him to release classified information. Even if he survived, the agency will be out for his blood. That is, surprisingly, not the thing that’s bothering him now. It’s the underlying sadness behind the stern eyes of the boy.</p><p>The kid is Choi Beomgyu, and he is all alone without anyone to trust, just a few days after burying his parents. As if that wasn’t enough, he almost died twice within a day.</p><p>“You’re really not giving in? It’s going to be messy… good thing I like red.”</p><p>Never mind. The kid is a psycho.</p><p>“I really don’t know who it is, okay?” he finally says, ignoring the sneer from the other male thinking it’s an obvious lie. “He was wearing a mask, so I didn’t catch his face. I can tell you that it was a middle aged man, though. Is that enough?”</p><p>“Bet my car it’s that fucker Jongho,” Beomgyu says, looking over his shoulder to Soobin.</p><p>“Deal.”</p><p>“Great deal, can I go now?” Yeonjun grunts, inching his head away from the knife that is still dangerously close to his face. He doesn’t trust the guy enough not to accidentally poke his eye.</p><p>“What? So soon?” he turns his attention back to Yeonjun, but dropping the knife now that it’s not necessary for threatening anymore. “Nope, you’re going to work for me!”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“First, you have to kill all the other hitmen hired to kill me.”</p><p>“What the fuck?”</p><p>“Second, you have to go back to your agency and dig information on who hired you. That’s who you’re going to kill for the last time before you’re free.”</p><p>“No, I’m not—“</p><p>“Six… seven. That’s seven people in total to kill!” Beomgyu counts with his fingers, smiling brightly at Yeonjun when he looks up again. It’s as if he is talking about something light like buying candies and not about killing people. “I will pay you four times the amount of what that asshole offered. On top of that, I will also spare your life. Isn’t that super nice of me?”</p><p>“What are you playing here, Choi Beomgyu? This is not a game and you can’t just re-hire me like that.”</p><p>The smile dissipates from Beomgyu’s face, just like an unplugged tub. There’s no disappointment, just firmness as the guy runs his fingers through Yeonjun’s hair, before closing them around a handful of the dark locks and yanking his head back. The sting makes him hiss, glaring at the younger male in anger.</p><p>“You think you’re in the place to say no?” his voice deepens when he says that, and even as the smile comes back to his face, it’s more of a cold-blooded one. One that sends a shiver of fear through Yeonjun’s body because of an underlying tone on what the guy can do to make him submit.</p><p>“You’re mine now, Choi Yeonjun.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. normality (and discord)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The house feels a lot more spacious now that everything went quiet.</p><p>Beomgyu lies down on his bed, his eyes stayed open even though his body is weighed down with exhaustion after such a long and tiresome day. Two attempts of ending his life in the span of few hours. There were threats for their lives before this, but this was the first time he had ever seen the real thing; being so close within death’s reach.</p><p>He is losing more than he gains, even with the money and assets he has under his name right now.</p><p>The quietness is momentarily disturbed by the sounds of silent creak on his door. He reassures himself that it’s nothing. The alarms are all up again and his bodyguards are all over the mansion. There’s no need to take a look to his door. Not like he can do that anyway, as he finds out soon after that he is not in control of his body.</p><p>Sleep paralysis at a time like this? Just perfect.</p><p>There is only the sound of his soft breathing for a moment, until it mingles with someone else’s. Someone is in the room with him, and they are breathing loudly. It sounds like a monster, but Beomgyu knows that there is something else he should fear more than a monster. In this world, he is not allowed to be a kid whose fear only limited to the monster under his bed.</p><p>“Bet you regret letting me go, huh?” a voice greets him. It sounds weirdly familiar, but he can’t recognize it, not when it’s being purposely deepened, promising something vile.</p><p>Heavy footsteps approach the bed, making Beomgyu’s heart start racing in fear.</p><p>“Cat got your tongue? You were awfully talkative just now,” the person comes into view, all glorious in his dark blue hair and leather jacket. His thick lips are tugged into a smirk as he looks down at Beomgyu. “You look prettier like this, though. All helpless and ready for me to take your life.”</p><p>Beomgyu glares at him, keeping his lips shut in a thin line. That’s until the gun comes into view, being held in Yeonjun’s gloved fingers like it weighs nothing. He squeezes his eyes tightly shut, swallowing the urge to whimper as he feels the coldness of the weapon stroking his cheek.</p><p>Perhaps he had overestimated his own power, thinking that he could control a cold-blooded assassin by sparing his life and offering him more money than he’s ever seen in his life. If only he had listened to Soobin…</p><p>“Open your eyes, baby. I want to see how you look when you swallow this bullet,” he feels fingers on his hair, flinching away from it and opening his eyes just to glare at the male. “I wonder how your parents would feel, leaving you with a fortune that only got you killed.”</p><p>A sob climbs up his chest, stifled as he bites down on his lip. He’s so not going to show weakness, especially not to someone who can sound annoyingly flirty when trying to end his life. The mention of his parents only brings tears to his eyes, mixed with the rage he has burning inside those orbs.</p><p>“What did you say? Right. They can’t feel anything cause they’re dead.”</p><p>Beomgyu opens his mouth to scream, struggling against the paralysis so he can launch himself on the killer and maybe claw his eyes out.</p><p>It’s a bad move. Yeonjun, still with annoyingly smug smile of him, shoves the barrel of the gun into his mouth. He chokes a little, tears slipping off his eyes from the pain of cold metal pressing onto his tongue.</p><p>“Good night.”</p><p>The only thing he sees is the way Yeonjun’s face morphs into one of a God of death’s face—consisting only skull, pieces of skin, and blood. And then he feels pain all over his body.</p><p>His body is shaking as he opens his eyes to the familiar beige carpet of his bedroom. Cheek pressed against the soft fur and sobs raking his body. He’s not dead, yet Yeonjun might as well had killed him from the inside by appearing in his dream alone.</p><p>He is no stranger to nightmares. They seem to visit him more ever since that night he received the call from the hospital about the whereabouts of his parents. People would kill to sleep in his comfortable bed, but he’s barely able to sleep peacefully in it. All he’s ever got is countless of nightmares and loud late night thoughts.</p><p>The sun is still hiding in the horizon, so Beomgyu stays curled up on the floor, hugging his knees as he lets his tears flow.</p><p>He has betrayed his own words, saying that he wouldn’t cry before all this mess came into an end. It’s proven to be harder, when he can feel the burdens pushing his shoulders down; he’s just not ready for this kind of responsibility. His ‘big plan’ consists of him trusting a killer to fix this mess for him, and it’s going to bite him in the ass if he’s not careful.</p><p>It's just like any other night where he curls himself up and tries to sleep, only this time, his tears are present to accompany his lonely dawn.</p><p> </p><p>When he is woken up for a second time, it’s to the sound of his bedroom’s door slammed open.</p><p>He is still on the floor, blanket covering his whole body that’s curled up into a small ball. Judging from the sound of footsteps, it’s Soobin coming to wake him up. And if that guy had to come to his room, it means that he’s awfully late and he has to bear the consequence of hearing his best friend nag all the way to school.</p><p>It's suspiciously silent, until he throws his blanket aside and looks up to catch Soobin peering down at him from on top of his bed. “Why are you sleeping there?”</p><p>Beomgyu jolts up to sit, rubbing his eyes with the balls of his palms as if to rub away the sleep, while he’s actually just making sure there are no traces of tears in his face. Soobin has already had enough in his plate aside from worrying about his mental state.</p><p>“I must have rolled down here in my sleep. You know I sleep like a baby.”</p><p>“Pretty sure babies would wake up and cry if they fell down from their crib.”</p><p>He throws the thick blanket at Soobin’s face for being a smarty pants, causing the taller male to erupt into a gleeful laughter.</p><p>Now, this, is what he needs to hear after an awful night.</p><p>“You sure you’re ready to go back to school? We can stay home a little longer, you know,” Soobin says once he gets rid of the blanket from his face, peering down at Beomgyu who is still sitting on the floor.</p><p>“And when I have to catch up on two weeks’ worth of lesson, then what?”</p><p>That’s totally not a Beomgyu kind of thing to say, and he knows that Soobin can sense it. If he sensed anything wrong, he’s not saying it, only reaching out to pet the messy tufts of his hair. “I’m proud of you.”</p><p>Only when the blonde gets into the bathroom to shower that he realized Soobin had been staring at the mark on his cheek that suspiciously looks like a remnant of his crying a few hours ago.</p><p> </p><p>Beomgyu didn’t think he’d be so happy to see the school building again.</p><p>The academy is a very safe place, with a lot of guards on the entrance and exit gates. It has something to do with the students attending being mostly the top 1% in the country in the term of economy. When you are rich, your teenage problems are not about finding a spring fling and building up popularity anymore. The students here are educated to be the future leaders of the generation.</p><p>“I don’t see why there is a need for Choi Yeonjun to attend this school, too. It’s not like he can start killing people during lunch break.”</p><p>“His people are the ones arranging his enrolment, thinking that it’d be easier to kill me at school,” Beomgyu says, rolling his eyes at the thought. No matter how many times it’s been, you will never get used to talk about your own assassination. “They aren’t wrong, though. What if the other hitmen also snuck inside the school? What if this place is not as safe as we think?”</p><p>Soobin stares at him. “I can protect you.”</p><p>“You can. But I don’t want blood on your hands,” he says, smiling as the car drives into the school area. The familiar building of the faculty is ahead of them. “Just leave the killing to that guy, and then we can get rid of him.”</p><p>“It scares me how you can talk about this kind of thing with that smile on your face.”</p><p>“Thank you! It’s my special skill,” Beomgyu still smiles brightly, only letting it fade when the car pulls into a stop. He gets off the car, fixing the blazer of his uniform as he walks into the building. Soobin following closely next to him.</p><p>“Everything will be okay,” Soobin whispers closely to his ear once they walked into the corridors with more students. Some of them noticed them, turning to whisper to their friends. They are wearing those sympathizing looks again. Soobin probably notices the tension on his shoulder. He always does, noticing the slightest changes in his mood and gestures. “You don’t have to say anything. I’ll deal with them.”</p><p>“Honestly, you’re a blessing, Choi Soobin.”</p><p>He means it when he said that, especially when a few classmates approach them afterwards, giving their condolences as if Beomgyu cares about them. It’s all just for the image and connections, not friendships. No one are actually friends in this school. Soobin is good at keeping those connections, though, seeing how he is handling their fake words nicely, all smiling and friendly.</p><p>Soobin must be as sad as he is after losing the couple who he’s considered as his parents for most his life, but he sets it aside just to take care of Beomgyu. He is always taking things for granted when it comes to Soobin. This time, he wants it to change. That’s why he is not going to make Soobin start killing people, even though the guy would do it if he wishes.</p><p>This time, he is going to protect Soobin again.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re back.”</p><p>Beomgyu turns his head to see a classmate, Kang Taehyun, approaches him by the coffee machine. He is someone Beomgyu would consider as a friend, since he doesn’t seem to have a hidden intention during the two years of them being classmates. Even so, they are mostly business partners, in the sense that he would pay Taehyun for tutoring him on a difficult subject.</p><p>Taehyun is a scholarship student, that’s why he gives off a different vibe than the rest of the students in this place. As he is not involved in the rich children politics, he doesn’t feel the need to please the people he doesn’t like, and by doing that, he is hated by the rest of the school. It also has something to do with him snatching the 1st rank at every evaluation and all the scholarship offers he already got from prestigious universities.</p><p>“Turn around right now if you’re going to say sorry for my loss,” he says, capping back his coffee tumbler once he’s done.</p><p>The guy just scoffs, taking the tumbler from him to steal his drink. “I already did enough of that by dropping some cash into the condolences box, back at the funeral.”</p><p>“Kang Taehyun? Giving me money?” Beomgyu gasps dramatically. “I shall dig through the box and put the envelope in a golden frame.”</p><p>“You’re too much.”</p><p>“What is too much?” Soobin appears on his side, seemingly done with his little chit-chat sessions and looking more relaxed as he joins the two.</p><p>“Taehyun took my coffee!” Beomgyu shouts, poking his tongue out at Taehyun upon receiving a glare from the guy.</p><p>Soobin arches a brow at the exchange, looking at the red tumbler on Taehyun’s hand before he reaches for it and exchanged it with a black one he had in his hand. “You can have mine instead. Beomgyu would fall asleep without his daily intake of coffee, and trust me, it’d be harder for you to put the materials into his little brain if he doesn’t listen to lectures.”</p><p>“Hey!”</p><p>“Thank you,” Taehyun clears his throat, cradling the tumbler close to his chest. “You’re back in the dormitory, right?”</p><p>“Yep! You’re going to get bored looking at my face again,” Soobin smiles at him.</p><p>“Totally. It was so nice having the room all to myself,” the guy says with a nonchalant shrug. “Anyway, I got to pick up the new guy. See you in class!”</p><p>When Taehyun leaves, Beomgyu gives Soobin a look. “That was so painful to watch.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Ignoring his clueless response, he tugs on the sleeve of his best friend’s uniform to drag him towards their classroom. “That got to be Choi Yeonjun, right? The new student. I think he has to room up with one of us, just so we can have him under strict supervision.”</p><p>“You actually think with your head for once, I’m amazed—“</p><p>“One more words and you’re fired.”</p><p>Soobin laughs, throwing his arm around Beomgyu’s shoulder as they walk through the corridor.</p><p>“He can room with me and Taehyun. There’s a spare bed.”</p><p>“Nope,” he says quickly, earning a curious look from the taller male. “He’s rooming with me. I’ll make it happen.”</p><p> </p><p>He actually makes it happen, even with 101 reasons of rejection proposed by Soobin.</p><p>Ever since the first day of his stay in the dormitory, Beomgyu has always had a special privilege of having his own room, just because he loves his privacy that much. He loves being somewhere he can be free from the scrutiny of the world.</p><p>The first time he is making an exception, it just has to be someone who is trying to kill him for money.</p><p>“You’re enjoying this game too much, Beom. This is stupid even for you,” was Soobin’s deduction on why he proposed the idea. Just as expected from Choi Soobin, he is not all wrong.</p><p>Beomgyu does enjoy this game, liking the thrill of keeping a weapon close to him, and having control of the said weapon to not explode on his face.</p><p>“Tell me why I have to room up with you again?” Yeonjun stops at the doorway to their dorm, holding the guitar case over a shoulder and carrying a gym bag in his free hand.</p><p>He is really not doing well in his disguise, only bringing so little thing when he’s supposed to stay in the dorm until summer holiday. If Yeonjun hadn’t been caught, Beomgyu would be suspicious of him now.</p><p>“It’s so we’ll know that you won’t do anything stupid when we’re not watching. Like planning to kill us,” Soobin nudges him from behind, making the guy stumble inside the room. He glares at the taller male, while Beomgyu is just watching the exchange from his bed, finding amusement in how the two seem to hate each other. It’s entertaining that Soobin can show this side of him to anyone else other than him.</p><p>“I would kill you for free, Choi Soobin!”</p><p>“Likewise!”</p><p>“No killing in my bedroom, thank you!” Beomgyu chimes in. “This part of the room is yours. You can do anything here, but you can’t cross the boundary. If you do, the alarm would beep.”</p><p>He gestures to a poorly drawn line on the floor that separated the rooms in two different areas. Beomgyu’s side is already filled with his stuff – a neat bed with some plushies on top of his pillow, a guitar hung on the wall, a study desk with a lot of little trinkets that he barely used. Meanwhile, the other side of the room is brand new. An empty bed and empty desk moved in a few hours ago just for Yeonjun.</p><p>“What alarm?” Yeonjun asks curiously as he drops his things in his bed, purposely stepping over the red line. No alarm goes off.</p><p>“Oh right, I forgot.”</p><p>Soobin takes long strides across the room, too quickly for Yeonjun to react, that by the time he flinches from the grab on his hand, a black leather bracelet is already fastened around his wrist. Soobin has to hold his hand tightly in order to make him stay still while he locks it tightly around the wrist with a key, throwing it at Beomgyu once he’s done.</p><p>“What the fuck?”</p><p>“We’re giving you a bracelet that matches your leather jacket! Where’s your gratitude?” Beomgyu says with a huff, sneering at the male when he fails to take it off. “Isn’t it cute?”</p><p>“Take it off!” he demands, making his way towards Beomgyu who is already making himself comfortable on his bed.</p><p>When he crosses the line, a loud beeping sound rips through the room, making him crouch down to cover his own ears. Beomgyu laughs more at the scene, pressing a button in his watch to cease the sound. “I have the control here. Also, if you try to do anything stupid, I can zap you with just a single touch.”</p><p>Yeonjun gives him a look. Such a hateful one that should be making him scared shitless. Instead, he smiles sweetly, turning his attention back to Soobin who seems to be enjoying the scene too.</p><p>“Isn’t our new pet a cute one?”</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>(  ∞  )</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Years of training to be the #1 hitman in the country, and for some reasons Yeonjun ends up being reduced into a new student of some rich kids’ institution.</p><p>Technically it’s a mission, so it feels like something has gone wrong the moment he walks into the place without wearing his signature black jacket and boots. He even had to take off some of his piercings. The things he has to do to earn money.</p><p>His hunch turns out to be true, that something is wrong. Only that it is not because of his outfit choice. The mistake comes in the form of the glasses guy who is responsible for his welcome tour. He knows that the latter realizes it too, because the first thing they do after recognizing each other is to stare at each other for a full minute at the entrance gate of the academy.</p><p>“So, you’re Choi Yeonjun.”</p><p>“That’s me.”</p><p>“Real name?” the guy scrutinizes him through the pair of glasses.</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>“You can call me Taehyun, then.”</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>The student beckons him to follow into the school building, while Yeonjun’s head goes haywire.</p><p>He could never forget a face he sees in the headquarters of his agency, including this guy, even though it’s been a long time since the last time they saw each other. Taehyun looks different now. Perhaps it has something to do with how he is acting as a high schooler, mixing into the pool of vulnerable targets like a wolf in a sheep’s clothing.</p><p>The tour goes on smoothly and quickly, with Taehyun explaining about the school building and his schedule like he’s done it a lot of times already. Upon a quick look, he’d pass out as a nerd that belongs in this school.</p><p>Not to Yeonjun, since he had seen Yeonjun in action when they had a same target during a mission last year. The merciless glaze coating his eyes as he finishes off his prey. He remembers wondering what the kid has gone through to be so trained at his young age.</p><p>First day of school, and he meets another hitman with a connection to his agency.</p><p>The gears start turning in Yeonjun’s head as he tries to weigh in the risk. For now, he has to assume that the guy has no clue about the mission that brings him here, but if he ever gets any leak from someone in the agency, it would be suspicious for Yeonjun if Taehyun knows that he’s made a contact with his target before infiltrating the academy.</p><p>That’s why when he sees a familiar face on the corridor ahead of them, he quickly pulls Taehyun into a nearby restroom.</p><p>“What the heck?” Taehyun hisses, rubbing his arm that was held in a bruising grip when he got pulled along.</p><p>“Why are you here? Are you in a mission?”</p><p>“Daniel, I don’t mix work and school, so no. This is my school,” he rolls his eyes. “Don’t ever mention the agency or missions when we’re here. Or else.”</p><p>He leaves the threat hanging, but Yeonjun doesn’t need to be told twice especially seeing the pure disdain in Taehyun’s eyes upon discussing the topic. Seeing that it doesn’t go further, the guy nods in satisfaction. He shoves the tumbler that he was carrying into Yeonjun’s hands along with some papers.</p><p>“Now, hold these while I’m using the bathroom for real.”</p><p>Yeonjun watches with squinted eyes as Taehyun casually walks over to the urinal. Luckily, that’s when the door swings open with the familiar face he saw back in the corridor walking into the restroom. It’s none other than Choi Beomgyu.</p><p>He really cannot be seen with this guy.</p><p>As soon as Beomgyu parts his lips to talk, he presses a finger onto the pair of soft lips, stealing a glance over his shoulder to make sure that Taehyun is not looking at him. Beomgyu is looking at him with a frown, asking for an explanation, but he just shakes his head, thrusting Taehyun’s stuff into the blonde’s hands instead before he leaves.</p><p>It will be harder for him to play double agents when he has people from both sides in this school.</p><p> </p><p>It might be karma for all his bad deeds in the past.</p><p>Not only that he has to room with Choi Beomgyu, but the kid is also an awful roommate slash client.</p><p>Yeonjun has to watch forlornly as Beomgyu drags his guitar case over the line, keeping it on his side of the bedroom ‘just for safety precautions’. Despite what he said, the guy seems to find it fascinating, something like an exhibition toy, since he has spent the last ten minutes gawking at the shiny rifle he kept inside that guitar case.</p><p>“Please—don’t touch that, you’re going to break something,” he hisses when he spots Beomgyu’s hand trying to reach into the case.</p><p>“Aw, why not?” A pout forms in the younger’s lips at the warning, but he obliges, running his fingers over the side of the case instead. “Were you planning to kill me with this? It’s hella cool.”</p><p>“Hah, you wish,” he shakes his head, sneering as he grabs the handle of the gun he kept on the inside of his uniform vest. Beomgyu visibly freezes at the sight of the weapon, probably knows that there is not enough time to call his beloved Soobin if he were to shoot the guy now. “It has a silencer, so it won’t alert other people. And you won’t be found until it’s too late.”</p><p>Beomgyu still stares at him, unmoving.</p><p>“Are you going to zap me now?” he asks, pointing the barrel of the gun at the other guy.</p><p>A few moments of silence passed, enough time for him to unlock the safety of the gun and shoot Beomgyu in the head. After that he can be free of this complicated mess he’s tangled in, with enough money to sustain him for years in his hideout. Even so, there is no fear in Beomgyu’s eyes. It’s as if he is so ready to die, or that he is so sure his ‘zapping’ business would work even in the last second.</p><p>“Nope. Cause you’re not going to do it,” Beomgyu says. His voice unwavering even at gun point.</p><p>“You have so much faith in me, I’m touched.”</p><p>“With a 4 times payment upon killing the last target? It’s such an easy money for you, right? Why would you risk it?”</p><p>“Then why do you still feel the need to collar me like this?” he gestures at the bracelet.</p><p>Beomgyu cracks a smile at that. “Just for fun.”</p><p>Despite the urge to whack the guy with his gun, Yeonjun sighs in defeat, placing the gun on the floor before sliding it over the wooden floor until it reaches the male.</p><p>“You can keep it until we need it. Please don’t play with—” of course when he said no, the blonde just has to pick up the gun and flip it around, playfully pointing it at Yeonjun who sighs in exasperation. “<em>God</em>, you’re such a kid.”</p><p>Beomgyu’s laughter fills the room. Such a bright and cheerful sound in the midst of the dark situation they are in. Someone like Beomgyu really doesn’t deserve to deal with guns and possible deaths.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>The day almost feels too normal, if you count meeting another hitman at a high school and watching a kid playing with his gun as something normal. At the end of the day just before he hits the bed, his screen flashes with an incoming call from an ‘unknown’. Typical of his agency.</p><p>“Can I just do weekly report instead? It’s not like I ever did this kind of report with the agency for other jobs before this,” Yeonjun grumbles into his phone.</p><p>It’s midnight, and he has to crouch down under the emergency staircase in order to take his call in peace. Beomgyu was already asleep when he left the room, so he is not worried about looking suspicious if he left for too long.</p><p>“You know this is a top priority case, so I have to make sure everything goes well. Any update?”</p><p>“Contact initiated with both Choi Beomgyu and Choi Soobin, I’m waiting for the right time to launch the attack. The other guy is a trained bodyguard.”</p><p>“Has that ever been a problem for you?”</p><p>Yeonjun swallows a lump on his throat. He will be running out of excuses at this point, especially since he can’t just tell the latter that the real reason he is slacking is because his target has changed completely.</p><p>“Of course no. I just need an opening, and then the guy is dead.”</p><p>A deep laughter sounds from the other line. Taehyung seems to be in a good mood, which eases him up since the call didn’t turn out to be bad in nature.</p><p>“I like your ambition, but you can slow down, baby,” the elder says, making him frown. “Our customer just requested to make the death seems like an accident, so I figured it will be trickier for you. A one-shot kill is easier, right?”</p><p>“That’s right.”</p><p>“He will double the payment for Choi Beomgyu, if you can make it look like an accident.”</p><p>Damn. What a tempting offer.</p><p>If this was offered to him a few days ago and he was not stuck with a leather handcuff around his wrist, he would be more motivated to work on this one kill. All this money, just for putting a bullet inside a rich kid. Just how valuable of an asset is Choi Beomgyu?</p><p>“I’ll make sure to do that, then.”</p><p> </p><p>After the call, Yeonjun drags himself back to the dormitory room. It will be dangerous for him to be caught by a teacher roaming around the corridor at this hour. He has never attended high school before, but listening to Taehyun talking about the rules and consequences this morning, Yeonjun can understand the importance of following those sets of rules.</p><p>It’s a little ironic, how he is following a set of rules made for kids, yet he can’t follow the one rule that makes him a decent human: do not kill.</p><p>“No, stop…”</p><p>A whimper greets him when he enters the bedroom.</p><p>It alarms him at once, knowing full well that it’s Beomgyu’s voice, and it will be his loss if Beomgyu were to get killed by anyone else. He whips around on his feet, carefully scanning the dark room for any presence other than the two of them. No matter how hard he looks, no one else is inside the room.</p><p>Moonlight seeps into the room from the tiny window by Beomgyu’s bed, and that’s when he can see the cause of the voice.</p><p>Beomgyu is squirming and sweating in his bed. His legs kicking lightly, uneasy in his sleep because of what he assumed to be a nightmare. His breathing grows to be laboured, and as Yeonjun watches, there is pure terror in the otherwise angelic face of the guy.</p><p>“Please… don’t do this. It hurts. Just kill me.”</p><p>The anguish pictured in his sleeping face is so prominent. Sure, Yeonjun has dealt with a lot of worse cases. People in pain, drowning in their own blood and begging for their life. It doesn’t affect him anymore after the nth time. This time is a rare case, as he can feel a clench inside his chest from seeing the guy writhing in pain. Even though he knows it’s just a dream.</p><p>How vivid can this guy dream? To the point that tears are rolling down his cheeks, glistening under the moonlight.</p><p>Sighing at his bad decision, Yeonjun takes long strides to the other part of the bedroom. The alarm instantly goes off, and he is not sure whether Beomgyu wakes up from the shaking of his hand or the voice of the alarm.</p><p>The moment his eyes snap open, catching Yeonjun’s face staring down at him, he yells at the top of his lungs.</p><p>Thanks to his quick reflex, Yeonjun managed to clamp a hand over Beomgyu’s mouth, shutting him up at once. The only sound in the room is their laboured breathings and the monotone ring of the alarm.</p><p>“It’s Yeonjun, calm down. You had a nightmare.”</p><p>Beomgyu’s big eyes are still trained on him, glazed over with fear and distrust until they slowly clear up, filled with recognition. He taps Yeonjun’s hand to make him let go, quickly turning off the alarm before he can look at the latter again.</p><p>“Beom—“</p><p>“That,” he’s cut short before he can say any more reassuring words. Beomgyu’s eyes glaring dagger to his face. “Never happened. You never saw me like that, you got it?”</p><p>His voice is as cold as shrapnel of ice, and for once, Yeonjun can feel the shiver of fear in his spines from the way Beomgyu looks at him; full of hatred and venom, as if he was the cause of his nightmares. He’s then shoved away from the bed, as Beomgyu buried himself back under his blanket that’s pulled up to cover his head.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>It’s as if the night before never happened.</p><p>Beomgyu wakes up in a good mood, ready with his uniform neatly worn on his smaller frame while Yeonjun is still busy trying to wake himself up. When Soobin appears by their doorstep, picking up his little young master, Yeonjun has to follow them to class.</p><p>After avoiding schools all his life, it’s ironic now that Yeonjun has to go to classes with students younger than him. Even sadder, he doesn’t even get the materials being talked about.</p><p>He doesn’t need to understand physics to be able to shoot his target.</p><p>So he distracts himself during the lectures, turning around on his seat to look at Beomgyu. The epitome of a good student is busy taking notes from the power point slides. A pair of glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. He didn’t even notice Yeonjun staring at him until an eraser is thrown his way.</p><p>“What?” he hisses.</p><p>“What was it about, last night?”</p><p>“What the fuck?” Beomgyu mouths at him, turning back to his notes, only to snaps his gaze back up when another eraser is thrown at him. “It never happened.”</p><p>“But it did happen. Did it happen a lot? That’s why you didn’t want to room with Soobin?”</p><p>Beomgyu scowls, looking like he is ready to strangle the guy if only it’s not for their current circumstance. “Mind your own business, Choi Yeonjun.”</p><p>“You looked super terrified when you saw me. Did you dream about getting tortured by me?”</p><p>There it is again. A glint of pain crossing the pair of clear eyes, followed by tension in his jaw. What Yeonjun didn’t expect is to see the guy snap, slamming his hands down on top of his desk. Pens sent clattered to the floor while heads turning to look at the source of interruption.</p><p>“Choi Beomgyu and Choi Yeonjun, detention during lunch break.”</p><p>Beomgyu groans while Yeonjun sneers at his distressed look.</p><p>“I’m so going to get you back for this.”</p><p> </p><p>Yeonjun had been curious about this thing called ‘detentions’ since he has never attended high school. He expected something terrible, like being beaten up or slapped on the palms with wooden ruler. The reality hits him in the face with a hundred lines of <em>‘I will pay attention to my teachers and not talk to my friends during classes ever again.’</em></p><p>High school is so boring.</p><p>Halfway through his punishment, Yeonjun’s stomach growls, alerting them of the fact that they are already super late to lunch. Beomgyu didn’t say anything, but his shoulder shakes as he stifles his laugh, his handwriting loses its readability on the last line he wrote.</p><p>“What?” he hisses.</p><p>“Thought I heard the sound of thunder,” Beomgyu says, punctuating it with a snort just as he adds a full stop on his line.</p><p>“Just like how I heard the sound of a tortured animal last night,” he claps back, keeping his gaze on Beomgyu to see his face darkens at the remembrance of what happened. “Turns out it was just you.”</p><p>“Can’t you drop it?” he demands.</p><p>Yeonjun shrugs a shoulder, not wanting to shake his arm and ruin his handwriting. “I can drop it once, but won’t that happen again?” he’s just guessing, but apparently he is correct judging from how the blonde is nibbling anxiously on his lower lip. He is not even writing anymore at this point.</p><p>“Even if it happens again, it’s none of your business.”</p><p>“It’s kinda my business seeing that you woke me up. If I’m going to be woken up every night by your wailing, I want to know the cause.”</p><p>“I. did. Not. Wail,” he says through his gritted teeth. A hand clenched on top of the table as if restraining himself from choking the male. “Why do you care anyway?”</p><p>“Don’t care. Just want to confirm that you’re actually scared, despite acting all tough around me,” he smiles, leaning over his table to bring his face closer with Beomgyu across of him. He drops his voice, but keeping his tone light and playful as he teases. “The little guy is actually scared of the big, mean killer in his room.”</p><p>Sure, it’s no laughing matter and Yeonjun is just being an asshole about it, but he didn’t expect the guy to react violently.</p><p>He gets up from his seat and brushes off their papers and all their stationery to crash onto the floor. He has already climbed up to the table that keeps them separated, about to jump on Yeonjun, when the door slams open.</p><p>“What is happening here?”</p><p>The teacher’s voice booms in the vacant room. Both boys are frozen in their spot, with Yeonjun ready to get up from his chair and Beomgyu halfway across the table with his knee already rested on top of the wood. No matter how they are going to explain this situation to the teacher, there is nothing good about how it looks.</p><p>“Detention after school,” she says sternly.</p><p>“But—”</p><p>“Yes, Mr. Choi? You don’t think you deserve that punishment?”</p><p>Beomgyu slowly gets off the table, standing up so straight Yeonjun starts dreading the state of his back bones. “No, ma’am. It’s a perfect one.</p><p>When the teacher leaves them again to continue writing and finish before the lunch break is over, Beomgyu shoots a glare at Yeonjun who can’t help but to laugh at how hilarious he thinks the situation is.</p><p>“Why? Wanna fight again?”</p><p>Beomgyu ignores him for the rest of the lunch break time, but Yeonjun seems to hear some muttered curses from the smaller boy as he writes the rest of his lines angrily. They all are connected with how much he hates Yeonjun and that he is going to regret it.</p><p>Can’t wait for it.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>If this is Beomgyu’s way to get back at him, he must be running out of torture ideas already.</p><p>He is only told to dress up nicely since they will be going out, so he throws on his favourite leather jacket and fixes his boots on his feet. When Beomgyu walks out of the en suite bathroom, already all suited up, Yeonjun realizes the severity of this payback.</p><p>“No. I’m not dressing up like that.”</p><p>“Yes, you will,” Beomgyu rolls his eyes, taking his phone to make a quick phone call. “Soob, bring me your least favourite set of suit. Yeonjun needs it for the party.”</p><p>“What party? It’s not in my job description to go to parties,” he complains, taking a step backwards when Beomgyu saunters towards him, peeling the jacket off his frame. He is sure that the boy might just strip him right there if only he didn’t back himself up in a defensive mode.</p><p>“It’s a company party. Just a small one, but I’m sure you can identify the guy who hired you when you hear his voice,” he says. “It’ll be easier to know who you are supposed to kill in the end.”</p><p>“Put a camera on Soobin, then I can just identify the sound from home,” he suggests.</p><p>“He’s not coming, so it’s also your job to protect me tonight. If I die, I’ll make sure he’ll have your head tomorrow.”</p><p>Knowing Soobin, he has no doubt that the guy would actually do it without any mercy. Especially if Beomgyu’s blood is on his hands.</p><p>“There might also be a stray hitman trying to kill me. I’m going to deliver a speech, after all. Your job will be to eradicate the gal or guy before I get on stage.”</p><p>There are knocks on the door signalling the arrival of his costume. The finality in Beomgyu’s voice had Yeonjun swallowing all his complains. He already accepts his fate when the guy opens the door to retrieve the set of suit that he will be wearing soon.</p><p>“Let’s stay in style when we kill people tonight!”</p><p>Beomgyu looks too happy about it, and Yeonjun can only accept the suit with the scowl as Soobin thrusts the set into his arms. It honestly doesn’t look that bad, especially once Yeonjun puts it on. Perhaps he doesn’t really mind looking like the visualizations of hitmen usually depicted by actors in action movies. But the fact that he doesn’t hate it means that Choi Beomgyu must have something else in mind to ruin the rest of his day.</p><p>He figures it out once they are alone, this time on the backseat of Beomgyu’s car.</p><p>It’s weird, being with Beomgyu without his bodyguard around. Throughout the whole ride to the hotel where the party is held, Yeonjun can only think of how easy it is to knock out the guy next to him. He can even overpower the driver from his seat and make it look like an accident that kills both of them.</p><p>Is it the quadruple amount of money waiting for him? A lot of his victims offered a larger sum of money at gun point. This is the first time Yeonjun is swayed. Is he scared of the power held by an 18 years-old kid? Or is it because a part of him actually pities the guy for having to go through all these alone?</p><p>“Honestly, you’re not much of a use here. My bodyguards have secured the place, but there are still possibilities of someone aiming from a long distance, so,” he made a gun with his fingers, aiming it to Yeonjun’s face in a mock shooting gesture. “Kill them before the event starts.”</p><p>“I didn’t bring my rifle, how am I supposed to snipe the person?”</p><p>“Your file says that you’re actually better at shorter distance combat,” Beomgyu says as he fishes out a gun, as if from the thin air, and tosses it onto his lap.</p><p>“How the fuck did you even obtain all these information?”</p><p>“You guys are not as hidden as you think you are. I can throw everyone in your agency to jail if I want to, it’s just that some of my people still use you.”</p><p>Yeonjun really doesn’t appreciate the smugness in the latter’s tone. It’s true that most of their clients are people from higher ups – the rich and the dirty politicians. The hitmen are basically just pawns, the dogs paid to do the dirty business while they are enjoying the result.</p><p>Still, it does not mean these people are allowed to step all over his pride.</p><p>“I’d like to see you try,” he says through gritted teeth.</p><p>“Watch me when I take over and do just that. I’ll start from you.”</p><p>“That can’t happen if I kill you first, though. You’re getting too comfortable here, Choi Beomgyu. I’m literally a killer and you’re giving me a—“he’s interrupted by his own yelp when he felt a sting of electricity shooting up from his hand. It’s almost like a tickle, yet it leaves an unpleasant sensation behind. “What the fuck?”</p><p>He starts tugging on the leather band around his wrist, only to shouts again when another zap is delivered. This time, it’s a little stronger, making him lightheaded for a few seconds.</p><p>“STOP THAT!” he snaps at the other male who is casually tapping on the screen of his watch.</p><p>“Just making sure that it’s still working, also reminding that you’re working for me now. Why do you think you have the right to threaten me?” Beomgyu finally tears his gaze away from the watch, looking up straight into his eyes. “Respect me.”</p><p>That’s it. He’s had enough of this insolent brat.</p><p>“You know what? Someday when I come back to kill you, you’re going to look back to this day and wish you’ve been more bearable.”</p><p>“And when I ruin your life, you’re going to wish you didn’t fail the first time you tried to kill me.”</p><p>“Fuck you, Choi Beomgyu!”</p><p>“I don’t even want to fuck you! Go fuck yourself!”</p><p>They both locked eyes in an intense mental battle for a few seconds before throwing their gazes away to look out their respective windows. Arms folded over their chests and insolent huffs escaping their noses.</p><p>It’s going to be a long night.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. blood (is poisonous)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The hotel is a familiar place for Beomgyu after countless of company events he had to attend in the past. His father always brought him here since he was a kid, saying that he had to get used to this kind of social event. Even as a kid, he had been sick of these people selling their smiles in order to build good connections with the higher-up from the company.</p>
<p>This is the first time he walks into the place with a burden on his shoulder. The heir of the company that everyone is expecting to bring shame.</p>
<p>The one that some people want to eradicate.</p>
<p>Even worse, this is the first time he is attending the event without Soobin next to him. The guy always knows how to soothe his bad mood, making him smile and feel like they are in their own world. Even the company of Yeonjun would be appreciated now.</p>
<p>He had sent the hitman to join his bodyguards once they stepped out of the car, sparing no second look at him because he was still mad from their little banter. Now he wishes that he had told Yeonjun to hurry up.</p>
<p>“You came.”</p>
<p>Another voice is addressing him the moment he just slipped away from talking to some important figures from the board. The same faces he recognized from the funeral are paying their respect again, repeating the same void apologies, but today with an additional of congratulations for his first public appearance.</p>
<p>The guy who is standing before him right now is not the same kind as those people.</p>
<p>“You’re acting like you didn’t always see me in like eighty previous events before,” he scoffs.</p>
<p>Huening Kai pretty much has the same life as he is. Being the son as the rivalling chaebol group, Beomgyu has seen the guy a lot since he was a kid. Their parents expect them to be close friends, which is ironic because the adults didn’t give a very good example for that. It might have something to do with being too similar in background, that they ended up with a mutual dislike instead.</p>
<p>“I’m just guessing that you won’t show up because Soobin is not coming,” he says with a shrug.</p>
<p>Another thing that Beomgyu dislikes from the younger guy is the impassiveness of his expression. He can’t figure out what Kai is feeling right now and it’s concerning.</p>
<p>“How do you know he’s not coming? You two are that close?” he arches a brow, challenging.</p>
<p>“He’s friendly, unlike you,” Kai says, picking up a glass of cola offered to him and smiling at the attendant. He lost the smile as soon as he focuses back on Beomgyu. “You really came here alone? No bodyguard in sight?”</p>
<p>“If I didn’t show up, who is going to go speak up there, you? Besides, why does it matter to you?”</p>
<p>As soon as the words slipped off his lips, Beomgyu thinks that he might be acting hostile for no reasons. It’s caused by a weird glint crossing Kai’s eyes for a split second. Was it anger? Or concern? Once again, it’s impossible to read Huening Kai even when he’s showing emotions.</p>
<p>The guy opens his mouth to retort, only to clasp them shut again when a lady in tight dress and wireless earphones comes over to them.</p>
<p>“Mr. Choi, we need you up stage in five minutes. I’ll escort you.”</p>
<p>Not throwing another look at the other guy, he lets the lady lead him to the direction of the stage. His steps grow heavy with each one that he takes towards it, especially with the way people are looking at him. Curious, pitiful, anticipating. There must be some hostile ones too, seeing that at least seven people in this room agreed to pay a large amount to kill him.</p>
<p>Reaching the stage, he tips his chin up, assessing the nameless faces in the crowd before he speaks. Time to put himself into the spotlight of a dirty world.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Seeing that he is still alive by the time he gets off from the stage, he can assume that Yeonjun did his work properly.</p>
<p>His legs are shaking by the time he disappears from the spotlight, and still are even after downing a glass of cold water. It’s not even the first time he’s facing these people. Last summer, his father had held a birthday party for him at this same hotel and he had to go up there too, being introduced as his legacy.</p>
<p>Only this time, Soobin is not there to drown him in praises, or to listen to him speak ill about these fake people. He doesn’t regret his decision to let Soobin stay home for the night; after all, Taehyun was sick and he needed his roommate. Soobin has a life of his own, and he can’t make the guy prioritize him all the time.</p>
<p>“You don’t look too well. Where are you going, hey—“</p>
<p>He sure doesn’t need to face Huening Kai at a time like this. “The restroom. Why?”</p>
<p>“I’ll come with you.”</p>
<p>“Why do you care, Huening Kai? Just go lick some boots and stop talking to me,” he snaps, clasping his mouth shut when the guy only stands there with displeasure on his face.</p>
<p>It’s not like him to not return his snarks. Usually they would throw hostile words to each other for no reasons while Soobin comes between them, but he has been unusually passive today. It makes Beomgyu sick on the stomach, knowing that the guy must be pitying him for the loss of his parents. Those acquaintances’ changes of attitude are just to be expected, but to be losing an enemy over this? That’s the last thing needed by his already wounded pride.</p>
<p>His nerves are replaced by anger by the time he is walking away. At times like this, it’s better to have another punching bag. One who actually deserves it.</p>
<p>“What took you so long?” he nags into the phone as soon as the call is through.</p>
<p><em>“I literally just saved your life, you’re welcome!” </em>Yeonjun’s voice comes from the line, too cheerful for his liking.</p>
<p>“Come back here, I’m pissed off so I need to kick you.”</p>
<p><em>“With that short leg?”</em> This asshole. <em>“Okay, wait. Your people are searching the perimeter once again because someone saw a suspicious movement. It could be nothing, though.”</em></p>
<p>“If it’s nothing, just hurry your ass up here.”</p>
<p>
  <em>“Missed me already, Choi Beomgyu?”</em>
</p>
<p>He shuts his eyes for a few seconds. Everyone just goes on their way to piss him off tonight. If this goes on, he might just fire the hitman and start killing people on his own.</p>
<p>“I’m going to the restroom in the 67th floor. If you’re not here by the time I come out, you’re going home on feet.”</p>
<p>Yeonjun has the audacity to even laugh. <em>“Okay, just—”</em></p>
<p>Before the guy can spew any more gibberish, he hangs up the call abruptly. His eyes search for the sign of the bathroom sign, passing some staff walking back and forth towards the bathroom. As he goes further in the long corridor, it goes perfectly silent. <em>Finally</em>.</p>
<p>With silence, comes the ability to hear what’s around him more clearly. He can hear the thud of footsteps on the carpet behind him, reminding him of Yeonjun’s heavy boots. But no one is walking with him when he glances over his shoulder. Those horror and thriller movies he used to watch in the weekend are really fucking with his mind, sending him into paranoia.</p>
<p>He exhales a breath of relief when he enters the restroom, which turns into a hitched one when he spots no one in there. Of course people would rather go to one that’s nearer to the ballroom, while he just traps himself here because he wanted some privacy.</p>
<p>The footsteps are behind the heavy restroom door now, stopping right before the wood separating them.</p>
<p>In panic, Beomgyu launches himself forward, entering one of the stalls and locking himself from the inside. His breathing is laboured as his heartbeat starts picking up in pace. He is not even sure if this is a leftover anxiety from the public speaking or because he actually fears for his life. He doesn’t even know what he is fearing.</p>
<p>The total silence that comes after that doesn’t help in calming his nerves.</p>
<p>He clamps a hand over his mouth when the restroom’s door is pushed open suddenly. The sound of air conditioner wind whooshing in can be heard for a few seconds before the door is closed again. Someone is with him inside this restroom.</p>
<p>Time is passing slowly like it’s stuck in a thick liquid. Beomgyu is waiting to hear the sound of trickling water, or someone entering one of the stalls to do their business, or just anything that will tell him the guy is here to actually use the restroom. Instead, he hears slow footsteps, and then the stall’s door starts to open one by one from the very corner.</p>
<p>When the footsteps reached his stall, Beomgyu can see the shadow in front of his door and a pair of black boots from underneath the door. His mind goes into a total state of panic.</p>
<p>
  <em>Fuck fuck fuck, I can’t die here. Not now. Not like this. </em>
</p>
<p>The element of surprise is the only thing he can use right now. When the person breaks down the door, he will be totally defenceless, left to defend for himself with the knowledge from his martial art classes that he stopped attending when he was 14. He drills hole into the door with his gaze, fingers curled around the knife he always keeps in his pocket.</p>
<p>A bang from the door makes him jump on his feet. There’s really no time to strategize anymore.</p>
<p>A second bang, and he unlocks the door to the stall, pushing the door as hard as he could to hit whoever it is behind his door. It sends the mysterious person crashing to the floor, giving him enough time to run out from the stall towards the door.</p>
<p>If only it was that easy.</p>
<p>Right as the door comes within his reach, the guy throws himself at him, knocking him onto the floor with the weight pinning him down. In his panicky state for survival, Beomgyu blindly waves the hand that’s holding the knife, releasing a cry from his mouth as his arms easily got seized, locked on the small of his back while his face is pushed down onto the floor.</p>
<p>It’s the end. He’s going to die like this.</p>
<p>On a dirty bathroom floor.</p>
<p>“Beomgyu?”</p>
<p>The voice makes him snap his head, realizing that he’s not being held down anymore. He glares through his teary eyes to the male who is pinning him down, spotting none other than Choi Yeonjun.</p>
<p>“What the fuck are you doing?” He screams, struggling under the restraint in his arms.</p>
<p>Snapping out of his surprise, Yeonjun releases his arm and gets up, letting the smaller male scramble to sit down on the floor. While he is catching his breath, he looks down on the floor, anger replacing the fear in his system.</p>
<p>“Why did you do that? What are you even doing here?”</p>
<p>“Your intel spotted two suspicious movements in this floor. They are still searching the corridors, but I got here first. I thought it was the guy.”</p>
<p>“Two?”</p>
<p>“I shot one on the way here. It’s someone from my agency so I have no doubt, but the other one…”</p>
<p>“He was here,” Beomgyu says. His voice is calm now, void of emotions as he’s drained off the fears. “He was following me. Did you see anyone else out there?”</p>
<p>“No, I saw the door closed and I came in to search. I thought you were—“</p>
<p>“Why do you have to be so useless?” he breaks into a shout, shocking the other male who abruptly stops in the middle of his explanation. His voice was so loud, that the silence coming after that gives off an eerie vibe.</p>
<p>“I want to go home.”</p>
<p>Yeonjun nods.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As they sit on the backseat of his car in total silence, Beomgyu puts his hand on his cheek and looks out from his window. Only now is he thinking about the unjustified anger he had for Yeonjun. And he knows the reason for him lashing out like that.</p>
<p>It’s not relief that he was feeling when he saw Yeonjun in that restroom.</p>
<p>It’s fear.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This morning, Beomgyu has gone back to his normal self. If we can call this normal.</p>
<p>He is awfully cheerful for a guy that has gone through a night of terror. The scene happened in the bathroom was not even it. True to his words, there were people planning to kill him last night. Yeonjun caught one at the rooftop of the building across the hotel. It’s the best position, one that he would be at if only he was still sticking to his initial job.</p>
<p>The sniper was already taken aback when she saw Yeonjun approaching her, and she was clumsy in close combat. It was not a big deal for Yeonjun to send her sprawling on the rooftop’s floor before he shot her in the face.</p>
<p>The other one was a little trickier.</p>
<p>For some reasons, the guy managed to sneak his way into the hotel, going all the way to the floor where the event was held. He dressed up as one of the attendees, and Yeonjun would not have caught him if only it were not for his identity.</p>
<p>“You’re here too?” it was one of the guys from the agency. He went by the codename Chris, and was too talkative for his own good.</p>
<p>“Just some old man downstairs. No biggie,” he had lied.</p>
<p>“Good for you. Mine is a so-called high profiled name, but he’s just a kid, that Choi kid, you know?” now, that got Yeonjun’s attention fully. “He just left the ballroom on his own, so I guess I’ll take my time with him. Must be fun.”</p>
<p>It was gross, seeing that sadistic glint in Chris’ eyes, along with the tongue peeking out to wet his lips. It only irritated him further this time especially because this guy was assigned a same target as him.</p>
<p>No one touches his prey.</p>
<p>“Well, good luck on your kill, Daniel!”</p>
<p>Before the guy could go on his way, Yeonjun has caught up to him. He stealthily slipped a gun under the guy’s suit jacket, the barrel pressing to his plump waist and the safety clicking off.</p>
<p>“What—“</p>
<p>“Remember when I told you that being too chatty will cost you a life?” he inched closer, deepening his voice to make sure that only the two of them hear it as a staff walked briskly past them in the corridor.</p>
<p>“Wait, stop—“</p>
<p>“I’m never wrong.”</p>
<p>The gun slid up towards the side of his chest. With a pull of his trigger, the guy made a choked noise of pain. Yeonjun does not wait until the life left his victim, he throws the guy off him and into a small storage room. There’s no time to feel sorry for the janitor that’s going to find this bloody sack of dead organs, so he breaks into a run as he talked into the in-ear a bodyguard had given him earlier in the night.</p>
<p>“There’s still another one? What are you talking about? I already got rid of this guy.”</p>
<p>
  <em>“One more going to the restroom near the south emergency staircase. Check to be sure. We’re going to fetch Mr. Choi from the ballroom and bring him to safety.”</em>
</p>
<p>Hearing the location, Yeonjun willed his legs to go faster, hoping that Beomgyu would not be so stupid to go somewhere that far from the ballroom without any protection.</p>
<p>That’s where he was wrong.</p>
<p>He couldn’t forget looking down at his target, almost pressing his gun to the back of his head only to notice the familiar dirty blond locks. He couldn’t forget the look of fear in those pair of teary eyes, which was replaced by recognition and pure anger a moment later.</p>
<p>This morning, Beomgyu is already back to being annoying.</p>
<p>“You can’t handle a few hours inside the class with me? Classes are the best time for… you know, planning some murders to make them look like accidents.”</p>
<p>Yeonjun stared at him impassively for a few seconds, but his mind was running in circle. That sounded super familiar, but how could Beomgyu find that out?</p>
<p>“We wired your phone. I’m not stupid, Choi Yeonjun,” <em>so that’s it.</em> “At least you won’t kill me in my sleep.”</p>
<p>“I might have some methods… fine! I’m going to class!” Yeonjun gives up as he saw Beomgyu starts tapping on his watch. Trust the kid to use that childish tool to make him submit for his demands. He is supposed to be killing people, yet here he is, obeying the wish of a rich kid and attending stupid classes he doesn’t even need anymore.</p>
<p>He changes out of his pajama right there, not having any qualms about stripping in front of Beomgyu who’s already on his complete uniform. He leaves the blazer out of the combination, opting to drape it over his shoulder.</p>
<p>“What’s that?” Beomgyu’s voice steals his attention again. He is looking at the piece of fabric wrapped around his arm, just right next to where the leather bracelet is nestled around his wrist.</p>
<p>The reminder of his wound from last night makes him feel the ache again. It’s not a big deal, a shallow slash on his arm from when Beomgyu was thrashing around under his restraint the night before. The blood stopped quickly, and he hasn’t looked at it ever since he passed out last night.</p>
<p>“Just a little cut, “he shrugs, peeling the fabric off.</p>
<p>Upon a quick look, it’s very bad. Dried blood is everywhere on his arm, not cleaned properly.</p>
<p>Beomgyu visibly winced at that. “That’s gross.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, thanks to you, dumbass. It’s a good thing you didn’t poke my eye out,” he grabs the pocket knife from his bedside table to toss it at the younger. Beomgyu caught it with an incredulous look shot at him.</p>
<p>“It was me?”</p>
<p>“Who else?”</p>
<p>“Clean that up properly before it gets infected!” Beomgyu says, hissing when Yeonjun is not making a move to do that and instead just tries to wipe away the blood with the dirty makeshift bandage. “Stop that! Oh my god.”</p>
<p>That’s how they end up skipping their first class of the day, hiding in the en-suite bathroom of their dormitory room. A loud yell can be heard from the confinement of closed bathroom when Beomgyu poured alcohol right onto Yeonjun’s drying wound, cursing in colourful language that makes Beomgyu burst into laughter.</p>
<p>His suspicion is confirmed. Choi Beomgyu is a sadist.</p>
<p>“This is for your own good!”</p>
<p>“That’s absolutely not how you handle wound!” he tries wriggling his hand out of Beomgyu’s grip, only to stop upon getting a glare from the younger male who has started to dab some kind of antiseptic to the cut. “Stop trying to play nurse. I can do it on my own.”</p>
<p>“I don’t want to be held responsible if you lost your arm, okay,” Beomgyu sounds calmer now. His eyes fully focused on the wound instead of trying to fight Yeonjun.</p>
<p>After a while, it starts getting bearable. Yeonjun sits on top of the closed lid of the toilet while Beomgyu tends to the cut. It ends with a bandage wrapped neatly around his wrist, fastened by a pororo themed band aid.</p>
<p>“Who would have thought a spoiled rich kid knows how to do this? Don’t you get rushed to the hospital if you get a papercut?”</p>
<p>Beomgyu scoffs. “I used to treat Soobin as a kid. He fell a lot, got bullied a lot, too. We’re only lucky that the other kids ran away when I appeared. That’s how we got used to stick together at all time.”</p>
<p>“He was your bodyguard when you were a kid too?”</p>
<p>The guy shoots him a look at the question. It seems like the matter around Soobin and his family are a sensitive one to him, but Beomgyu is not going away or closing the conversation. Instead, he seats himself on the edge of the countertop, busying himself with stuffing the tools back into the emergency kit box as he talks.</p>
<p>“My father adopted him, but he begged our parents to erase his name from the family certificate last year, said that he didn’t want anything to do with the rich family politics,” he said, exhaling a heavy sigh. “I can’t blame him for wanting to be free, yet he is still sticking around and getting paid as my bodyguard instead. How sick is that?”</p>
<p>“Anything for money, I guess,” Yeonjun shrugs, unfazed by the glare thrown at him. Any time now, Beomgyu might throw another book on his face for speaking badly about his little bodyguard.</p>
<p>“I need to remind you that Soobin is very different from the like of <em>you</em>,” he rolls his eyes. “He just feels like he owed our parents for everything, but that’s not the case. I just want him to have his own life, really. Going to movies, or out on a date. Taehyun has hinted asking him out for a while already, but he’s too busy protecting me. That idiot. After this ended, maybe…”</p>
<p>Yeonjun honestly does not care about this whole high school business of the two people he currently hate the most. It’s just amusing that Beomgyu is so sure Soobin would have a normal life when dating a hitman like Taehyun. Though the other thing makes him even more amused.</p>
<p>“Are you sure he will freely go out with Taehyun after this ended?”</p>
<p>“Yeah? Why won’t he?”</p>
<p>Yeonjun scoffs, he might hate Soobin, but the poor guy really doesn’t deserve this.</p>
<p>“He’s like, in love with you.”</p>
<p>“Haha,” Beomgyu laughs sarcastically, peering into his watch. That makes Yeonjun tense a little, expecting a zap for his statement. It turns out he’s really using the watch for its actual purposes, showing it to Yeonjun. “Time to bore yourself to death.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Yeonjun has always regarded himself as a good example of a contract killer, a hitman. He spent his high school years training for this purpose instead of studying like normal students, which explains how he became the youngest yet one of the best in the agency.</p>
<p>That’s why it comes as a fatal hit to his pride when he walks into a trap that might just have come straight out of Luring out Your Target 101 Textbook.</p>
<p>It starts with a simple text message from an unknown number. It attached an unpleasant picture of him dozing in a classroom, along with:</p>
<p>
  <em>Come to the home economics classroom after school.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Or everyone will know your secrets.</em>
</p>
<p>and then it ends with him cornered inside the said classroom, with his hands lifted up and a row of baking ingredients watching him being a failure of a hitman. The sound of a gun’s click is loud in the vacant room, followed by a familiar metal pressing against his shirt.</p>
<p>He didn’t think much about following the instruction, considering that the academy is supposed to be a safe place. Even if this person is an actual dangerous one, it just means that they are exposing themselves for Yeonjun to kill. That’s how confident he is, a leftover euphoria from last night’s kills.</p>
<p>What he didn’t expect is the presence of a gun in the middle of the day, inside a school.</p>
<p>Taking a deep breath, he fakes the first sob out of the bouts he already prepared. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I did, but don’t let my mom know that I’ve been sleeping in class. My dad will disown me if I don’t take over our million dollar business.”</p>
<p>“Don’t kid around now—“</p>
<p>“I’m actually 20 years old already so I need to graduate too. If you leak that to everyone, the principal will hold me back again and—oh my god, is that a gun?” he actually sounds so heartbroken and scared now, he wants to hug himself. “M-my father will pay you! Just don’t kill me, please? I’ve never even had my first kiss!”</p>
<p>“What the fuck?”</p>
<p>As soon as the barrel of gun lost its pressure against his back, Yeonjun swiftly whips himself around, taking his opponent by surprise with a smack of gun. It clatters on the floor, but no one paid any mind to it as Yeonjun is busy twisting the guy by his arm to switch their position. In just a few seconds, he got the attacker face down against the table, an arm twisted behind him.</p>
<p>“Thank you for listening to my sob story,” he laughs, reaching out to mess a little with the guy’s fluffy hair. “That was so cute, though, T.”</p>
<p>“And I thought it was working for real. You look like the idiot type,” Taehyun groans as his arm is twisted some more when he tries to struggle out of the grip. It’s a wonder how he could still keep the whole cocky brat act even after he got caught.</p>
<p>The rookie kind of scheme which ended up in failure? Yeonjun is not questioning that one. Taehyun is forever stuck in that rookie phase after, all.</p>
<p>After some digging he did upon meeting Taehyun for the first time, it’s not hard to find out data of the kid from the agency—especially when he used to be a hot topic. Used to be known as T, they both were both newcomers in the agency a year ago, fighting to prove themselves and climb up the rank of hierarchy. And then one day, the guy suddenly quitted. Yeonjun only remembers vague details about him, thinking about how stupid he was for throwing away his career after years of intensive training, especially one that couldn’t have been easy for his young age.</p>
<p>The rumoured update is that he had moved into another agency to train in emergency medical department, which makes him a traitor, and the agency would give a generous reward when you get rid of a traitor.</p>
<p>It’s tempting, really, especially seeing that Taehyun attacked him first.</p>
<p>“What was that for?” he asks, voice still calm now as he just wants explanations more than anything.</p>
<p>“What was <em>that</em> for? You tried to poison me!”</p>
<p>Now, that’s offensive. It’s even more offensive seeing the fact that Taehyun is still alive right now. If Yeonjun really wanted him dead, he would be all over the news already. A murder at a rich kids’ academy would gather that much attention.</p>
<p>“Why would I poison you?”</p>
<p>“You know why!”</p>
<p>“Well, I don’t fucking know, okay? Don’t think so highly of yourself, as if I wanted to get my hands dirty for some pocket money,” Yeonjun takes a step back with a scoff.</p>
<p>As soon as he’s freed, Taehyun turns back around. His stance is wary and ready to fight, like he could throw Yeonjun off with a single kick. He doesn’t doubt it.</p>
<p>“Then why did you put something in my drink? You were the only one who held it!”</p>
<p>“Someone else must want to kill you then? Congratulations, but that’s not me. I have a more important mission here than just catching a little traitor.”</p>
<p>Taehyun’s face hardens at the nickname. He glares at Yeonjun with utmost dislike. Luckily, he is already used to the look of contempt given to him by both his rivals and targets.</p>
<p>“Just in case it’s really you, just know that I have enough materials to expose you and send you to jail before you can get paid for this mission.”</p>
<p>“And if it’s not me?”</p>
<p>Taehyun shrugs. “Sorry, I guess?”</p>
<p>Annoying brat.</p>
<p>After saying that, he walks past Yeonjun to exit the class, ignoring the bewildered look from the elder at how quick the event turned. It feels anticlimactic. He had expected more punching and shouting after that brilliant little trick he came up with on a whim.</p>
<p>“Wait, your gun?”</p>
<p>Taehyun is not even looking back. “It’s fake. Why would I keep real guns around when I’m just a medic now?”</p>
<p>It’s even more irritating that Taehyun acts innocent in front of his friends once they got back to class. The friends being none other than Soobin and Beomgyu. If he didn’t hate the small world they live in, Yeonjun surely hates how small the academy’s friendship circle is.</p>
<p>“Taehyun was throwing up the whole day yesterday until dawn, but he was ready for the class so early this morning, what’s your excuse?” Soobin is in the middle of his nagging session when the two got back to class. It’s nearing the end of the lunch break and everyone is just sitting around waiting for the teacher to come.</p>
<p>“I had an important business this morning! Are you alright, though? Is it food poisoning?” Beomgyu turns to question Taehyun once the student joins them at their table, looking concerned, but obviously just using it as an opportunity to switch the topic.</p>
<p>“It’s all good now, I was thinking someone must have put something in what I consumed,” his gaze flits towards Yeonjun for a split second as he says this, challenging him. “But who would do that, right?”</p>
<p>“We were thinking that it’s the coffee I gave him that day, so that would be my fault too…” Soobin says with a sigh.</p>
<p>“It’s not you! I brought it around for a while, so it’d be easy if someone were to do something to it. Right, Yeonjun?”</p>
<p>If Yeonjun thought that the Choi duo were irritating, this one takes the top spot. It’s such a shame that he was not interested in the whole business of eradicating the traitors of his agency. Perhaps once he’s done with Choi Beomgyu, but for now Taehyun needs to wait for it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>what a good day to make everyone in txt hates each other. it comes in full circle in this chapter! press f </p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. trusts (vs competition)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I feel like the only purpose of you attending this school is to get detentions.”</p><p>The corridor is already deserted of students as they walk towards the faculty office. It’s been a constant entertainment for Beomgyu to watch the guy getting reprimanded in class for messing up with school work or falling asleep in class. At least he is not the only idiot in class now.</p><p>“Why are you here with me again? You can’t bear to be separated with me for several hours?” Yeonjun snaps his gaze to look over his shoulder, scowling at the blonde who is sneering at him from where he’s following from behind.</p><p>“Just want to make sure you didn’t ditch it, plus we have an important appointment in 3 hours. Finish whatever they tell you to do quickly!”</p><p>“I’d rather stay in there with the stinky old man than join you to whatever it is.”</p><p>“What a shame. You’d really enjoy this, though. I was thinking of taking you as a reward for your hard work, but maybe not,” he sighs, biting back a smile as the annoyed look in Yeonjun’s face slowly morphs into a curious one. But he doesn’t stay there to feed into the curiosity, halting his step to let the guy enter the office.</p><p>As soon as he disappears behind the door, Beomgyu turns around to go back to the dorm. Before he can think of what to do to waste time, however, he has to stumble back again as he almost walks straight into a pole. The pole being an annoyingly tall guy who’s just standing straight there without any sound.</p><p>Much to his dismay, it turns out to be none other than Huening Kai.</p><p>“Why are you everywhere?” he hisses, mentally cursing himself from getting jumpy around the guy.</p><p>“I was here first. Got called into the principal office. Now, why are <em>you</em> here?”</p><p>Beomgyu ignores the question, waving his hand in dismissal and sidestepping the taller male so he can walk away. “It’s none of your business.”</p><p>The long legs caught up to him right away, as Kai ends up walking next to him. Their footsteps briskly echoing in the empty hallway as an attempt to outwalk each other.</p><p>“Who was that? Edgy looking guy with leather stuff?”</p><p>The description almost made Beomgyu laugh, and he would, really, if it didn’t come out from Kai’s mouth. “New student in my class. Why do you care?”</p><p>“Stop asking that question! I’m just curious. You seemed close with him, too. Is that really a new student?”</p><p>“So what, you’d believe it more if I said that he was my boyfriend?”</p><p>Kai gives him a strange look at the random answer he spewed, lips pressed thin for a second. It’s not like him to run out of things to argue about, especially since they have been doing this for years. They used to fight over something trivial like plushies and ice cream as kids, and eventually gave up fixing their relationship as they grew up. For this reason, it’s easy for him to spot when there is something off.</p><p>“What?” he finally stops, moving to stand in front of the other guy so they are facing each other.</p><p>“I got a bad vibe from him. Are you sure you’re supposed to be hanging out with him?”</p><p>Now, that’s really weird. Why would Kai care even if he’s being friends or even dating a bad guy? This guy would probably dance on his funeral if he had been assassinated back then.</p><p>“Again, why do you care, Huening Kai? We’re not even friends,” he scoffs, giving him a warning look before turning around to leave again.</p><p>They are out of the campus building now. With the rule of not running in the corridor becoming invalid, Beomgyu breaks into a tiny run, only to groan in irritation when the taller guy caught up easily again, this time even bold enough to catch him by the shoulder.</p><p>“WHAT?” he snaps.</p><p>“Just,” Kai staggers back a bit as he saw the hostile glare from the blonde, the grip on his shoulder loosening. “Be careful.”</p><p>Pissed off that he actually sounds like he cares, Beomgyu wrenches his shoulder away from the touch, stomping his way to the dormitory building without returning the ‘compassionate’ words. He likes it more when Kai is acting mutually hostile towards him, because then he won’t feel so bad to ignore his warning. Even without being warned, Beomgyu already knows that Yeonjun is bad news.</p><p>He doesn’t need the like of Kai to tell him to be careful when dealing with an assassin who is after his life.</p><p> </p><p>The encounter caused a free fall of his mood, so Beomgyu finds himself swerving from his path towards his own dorm room and instead ends up barging his way to Soobin and Taehyun’s room. Upon entering with a bang of the door, he locks eyes with Soobin who stares at him with a scandalized look, while Taehyun is nowhere in sight. Understandable, since he always has things to do after school.</p><p>“Another fight with Yeonjun?” Soobin guesses.</p><p>He shakes his head, keeping his mouth shut as he enters the room and climbs into the bed. He makes himself comfortable in the little vacant space in Soobin’s bed, earning spluttered complaints from the owner as he ends up being half squished against the wall, with half Beomgyu’s weight on top of him.</p><p>“Your friend is really irritating,” he finally says after he stops moving, his nose pressed to the fabric of Soobin’s sleeping shirt, and his voice coming out muffled.</p><p>“Who?”</p><p>“Huening Kai.”</p><p>Soobin laughs at that, his breath puffing onto Beomgyu’s locks. Inevitably so, with how close their position is.</p><p>“You two kept on bickering but he’s actually super nice to me. What kind of fight did you have with him when you were 4?”</p><p>“Probably tried to strangle each other even then.”</p><p>Laughter fills the room as Soobin’s chest shakes under where Beomgyu’s cheek is pressed, and then it grows into a comfortable silence. The slow rise and fall of Soobin’s chest and the sound of his slow breathing might lull him to sleep if only his thoughts are not so tangled.</p><p>“He warned me about Yeonjun,” he finally decided to tell the details.</p><p>“Kai? Probably sensed that he’s bad.”</p><p>“That’s what I thought too, but he couldn’t have seen him for more than a minute. And then Kai… he’s been acting weird,” Beomgyu says carefully, his brows furrowed as he starts thinking of each thing said by the guy again. He never really took them to mind, since their conversations usually only consist of bickering and insults. Now that he thinks about them again, Kai was acting suspicious.</p><p>“How so?” Soobin moves a little under the weight, probably needs to circulate blood into his arm that’s pinned under Beomgyu’s weight.</p><p>“He talked to me at the event last time… and did I mention about someone following me to the restroom?”</p><p>“No, in fact, you did not tell me anything about that.”</p><p>Beomgyu lifts his head to look at the latter, a sweet smile slowly forming on his lips at the reminder that he opted not to tell his friend what happened. Judging from how Soobin is looking at him, he is still mad about that, but it’s good that he doesn’t push him away. He really needs his best friend to stay where he is.</p><p>“Long story short, someone followed me to the restroom, you know that I always use the one with less people?”</p><p>“I’ve been telling you that it’s not good—“</p><p>“Yeah yeah, mom. Anyway, someone followed me in the corridor. I could hear the footsteps, but I didn’t see the guy… and I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel like a stranger? Not to mention that was after I told Kai I was going to the restroom. What if it was him?”</p><p>Soobin frowns at the information, taking it in. “Are you sure it wasn’t Yeonjun?”</p><p>“Nope, at that time, he would be busy taking care of another kill.”</p><p>They grow silent after that, gears running in their heads thinking of the possibility, or maybe just thinking about whatever happened the night of the event. It’s Soobin’s first time hearing about it after all, no matter how guilty he feels hiding things from the guy for the first time; especially one that’s concerning his safety.</p><p>The thing that makes him blink out his deep thought is the soft touch of Soobin’s fingers on his cheek. The pad of his thumb carefully brushing along the fading bruise he had on his cheek from the impact of his face to the bathroom floor that night. It feels more soothing than the cooling ointment he applies on his face.</p><p>“Promise to let me come with you next time?”</p><p>Beomgyu lets his eyes flutter shut at the comfort from the touch, unconsciously leaning in to rest his cheek into Soobin’s wide palm. He only opens his eyes again a moment later, exhaling a long breath, and staring right into the pair of gentle eyes.</p><p>For some reasons this feels different from the other times they spend cuddling and bickering in bed, especially because of the sudden rise of heat to his cheeks caused by the way Soobin is looking at him.</p><p>
  <em>“He’s like, in love with you.”</em>
</p><p>Fuck Choi Yeonjun and his unneeded opinion.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>After Yeonjun comes back from his detention, he is quickly whisked away into the car that leads them to a sports centre in Gangnam Hill. It’s called a sports centre, but it’s not one frequently visited by the youth. The most popular place here is the golf area that’s meant to be some meeting and bargaining spot for businessmen.</p><p>For the three of them, it’s the shooting centre.</p><p>“Remind me again why I can’t take my own gun to practice shooting here?” Yeonjun asks. His shoulders look empty now without the guitar case that’s usually nestled there. At least he managed to grab his jacket. It’s looking a little odd being worn outside of his uniform shirt.</p><p>“Firstly, we are using the guns provided here. Second, you can practice your shooting on real people when the time comes. Lastly, just shut the fuck up,” Beomgyu says nonchalantly, a skip on his step as he exits the car and walks towards the building.</p><p>Before he could enter through the glass window, he halts his step upon recognizing someone walking out of the place. It makes him swivel back on his feet, smiling at Soobin who almost bumped against him and hissing his instruction through gritted teeth.</p><p>“Turn around now, let’s go—“</p><p>“What?” Soobin frowns.</p><p>“Beomgyu?”</p><p>“Fuck.”</p><p>Hearing the call of his name, he reluctantly turns back around to face the man. It’s none other than Choi Jongho himself.</p><p>“Hi, uncle,” he greets a little too cheerfully, echoed by Soobin who also offers a deep bow by his side. This guy doesn’t deserve that from him. “Fancy meeting you here.”</p><p>“I’ve been trying to get in contact with you these past few days. Your phone is still the same number, right?”</p><p>“Uhm, yeah,” Beomgyu laughs awkwardly, remembering that day he sets the option to send the calls from that man’s number straight into voicemail.</p><p>“The school is limiting the usage of cellphones lately. I think it’s a good campaign,” Soobin chimes in quickly with an excuse. Bless this guy.</p><p>Jongho nods slowly, feigning an understanding look as he hums. “I tried to talk to you at the event last time but we were both busy so I’m just going to say it now. Would you and Soobin like to come for a dinner this weekend?”</p><p>No. A straight fucking no.</p><p>“This week is kind of hectic…”</p><p>“I figured you’d feel lonely to eat alone all the time.”</p><p>“Uncle, I live in a dormitory,” he smiles politely. “Besides even when I eat at home, I have Soobin with me.”</p><p>“Aah, right. But just for the old time’s sake, consider it, hm? Next weekend maybe? I’ve had you and your parents come over for dinner every other month in the past. I’m sure Chaeyeon would be happy to have you over too.”</p><p>Seeing that there’s no way out of it, he finally just throws a look of despair at Soobin, who quickly handles it. “Thank you for the invitation, uncle. We will gladly come over for the dinner.” Because there is no way Beomgyu can say the words without gagging.</p><p>“That’s wonderful!” Jongho smiles widely.</p><p>“Can I take my boyfriend too?” Beomgyu suddenly blurts out, an idea popping up in his head and impulsively spilled to his mouth without any filter. He ignores the two’s questioning looks as he gestures towards Yeonjun at the back.</p><p>“Sure sure, he will be welcomed too! See you next week, boys,” the old man finally bids farewell with an equally wide smile as his car arrives at the lobby, waving his hand at them.</p><p>Beomgyu keeps the stoic smile on his lips and drops it at the exact moment the man disappeared into his car.</p><p>“Fucking leech. I can’t believe we agreed to that,” he scowls, turning back around to walk into the sports centre only to pause when he feels Soobin’s gaze on him.</p><p>“Boyfriend, really?”</p><p>“You have a better idea on how we can take that loser along?”</p><p>“You secretly wish that this loser is your boyfriend, huh?” comes Yeonjun’s nasal voice as he joins them. An annoying grin plastered over his face, which disappears only as Beomgyu smacks a hand over his face. He disappears first into the place with Yeonjun’s complaints following from behind him.</p><p>He has referred to Choi Yeonjun as his boyfriend two times within a day already. Imagine how grossed out <em>he</em> should be even without the annoying voice of the guy teasing him.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>(  ∞  )</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>The trip to the shooting centre brings back a lot of memories.</p><p>Yeonjun remembers the early days of his training where he started from here. The yells he got when he couldn’t hit the target or jump from the impact of the gun, the beating he’d take for the nth time he messed up, the praises at the end of his training sessions. Now that he has used real guns on real people every other day, this feels like a mere kid’s play.</p><p>Even more so as he watches Beomgyu emptying his clips and only managed to clip the edges of the target. The blonde is currently raging and blaming the target for being too far, while his trainer tries to lift his ego by praising him anyway</p><p>“Might as well go to the arcade and shoot zombies,” he mumbles to himself.</p><p>“You think you can do better than that?”</p><p>Soobin’s voice joins his private mocking party from his side. He didn’t expect the guy to utter a word to him, especially since he was still bitter about being left behind for the event last time.</p><p>“<em>Please, </em>I shoot people for a living,” he scoffs. “I could even make a better bodyguard than you. What’s the use of one who can’t handle guns?”</p><p>“I can protect my person just well without killing people,” Soobin replies calmly. It’s amazing how he can still keep his voice this soft even as his eyes are practically shouting curses at Yeonjun now.</p><p>“Even at gunpoint?”</p><p>“Even then, I’d still be better than you,” the curve of his lips slowly turns into a smirk as he says that. “Remember when I slapped you with that gun? Next time I’ll use your rifle.”</p><p>“Your weak ass hands? Holding my rifle? In your dream.”</p><p>“These weak ass hands can shoot better than yours.”</p><p>“What are you two even doing?” Beomgyu’s voice suddenly cuts in the middle of the tensed ‘discussion’ they are having.</p><p>It’s only now that Yeonjun realises they are already facing each other, jaws tensed and hands ready on their guns even with cold smiles on their faces. If there hasn’t been an interruption from the guy, they might have shot each other in the next minute.</p><p>Even now, they don’t spare a glance at Beomgyu, getting up from their seats only to take their places at their shooting ranges.</p><p>“Would be embarrassing if you fail even after all those big talks, Choi Soobin,” Yeonjun says as he fixes the vest on his chest, ready to put the noise cancelling earphones over his head when he caught the guy sneers at him.</p><p>“Would be embarrassing if you lost to a high school kid.”</p><p>That makes him snap. “Bring it on!”</p><p>“What the hell is happening…”he vaguely hears Beomgyu’s voice muttering in the background just before he plugged all the sounds off with the earphones.</p><p>The world instantly goes silent as he turns to the shooting target, aiming his gun just the way he has practiced it countless of times before. The hardest thing from this game is the difference it has from shooting people in real life. Yeonjun is more used to a moving, breathing target. No matter how sadistic it is, he doesn’t see any purpose shooting some drawings on top of white paper.</p><p>Still, he got most of the shots, smiling in triumph as he lowers his gun and turns to check the guy next to him.</p><p>Soobin hasn’t finished with his clips yet, but once he does and the smoke clears out, Yeonjun has to admit that he is good. Steady arms and good aim. Why would someone so sheltered be this good at shooting? Not to mention he looks like someone who would trip on his own feet when walking down the street.</p><p>He only snaps out of his deep thought when he saw Soobin looking at him, his lips moving and his hand pointing to the earphones. When Yeonjun takes his off, he instantly regrets it. The smugness is much palpable in the air now.</p><p>“You missed one.”</p><p>“No? Yours are not even aiming for the right place!”</p><p>Soobin rolls his eyes, dragging Yeonjun closer by the sleeve of his shirt for a better look at his target. “I aimed at the vital areas, see? It’s not my fault that you can only shoot a head!”</p><p>Upon squinting at the target, it’s true that there are hits on several areas such as the chest, neck, and the face. Mostly it’s around the chest area, with several holes carefully aimed to all the vital parts that would leave a real person bleed to death.</p><p>“You didn’t even shoot the head!” he still insists, the competitiveness got the better part of him.</p><p>“Why do I need to be barbaric like you?”</p><p>Yeonjun rolls his sleeves up as he moves back to his position, telling the trainer that they are doing a re-do before he throws a glare at the other male who is still smiling in the annoying way of his.</p><p>“Okay, one more time.”</p><p>That’s how they ended up starting another round, and then another, until they lost track of time. The last time Yeonjun was about to request for another round, the trainer just gives them a tired look.</p><p>“You have reached the limit of your stay. Actually, you have passed it since like an hour ago, but the other boy paid for an extra hour,” she explains, gesturing to the locker room. “Now return your equipment and get out of here.”</p><p>It’s hard to admit, but he did have fun, more than when he used to do the shooting all on his own, with his own trainer breathing down his neck. Having someone who almost reached his level of skill makes the whole thing better. Even if there’s no thrill of shooting a real person.</p><p>Still, it’s not enough reason to be friendly with each other.</p><p>“Your fault, being too engrossed in a kid’s game,” Yeonjun grumbles as he drops the gun into the returning area, stripping himself from the vest while the other guy does just the same.</p><p>“You literally had the most much fun there, didn’t even notice that the time was up, or that Beomgyu had left first.”</p><p>“Why would I notice his presence?”</p><p>“He’s your client now, shouldn’t you be protecting him? Aware of his presence at all cost?”</p><p>“Not really, I accidentally killed one of my clients during my early days,” he says, a grin forming on his lips as he remembered his mistake from back then. He got one hell of punishment for that, but it’s funny now that he thinks about it again.</p><p>Soobin gives him a weird look as he shoulders his bag. “If it weren’t for this fucked up situation, I wouldn’t want you anywhere near us.”</p><p>“Yeah, and what? You’re going to kill all those people on your own?” he mocks, catching up quickly as the guy is about to leave him by walking ahead first.</p><p>The sun is already setting by the time they are walking out of the place, with the car already waiting at the lobby. The orange light that’s casted onto Soobin’s face sets a colder tone to his voice despite the warmth from the sun.</p><p>“I would do it for him.”</p><p>When they open the car door, Beomgyu is fast asleep. His legs curled over the entirety of the backseats, leaving no space for the two to slide in. The hard look in Soobin’s face dissipated at once, replaced by a fond smile as he shook the smaller guy on his shoulder.</p><p>As always, Beomgyu is uneasy when he sleeps, face contorted in a frown and lips pouted, but when he cracks his eyes open to see Soobin, there’s no fear or disdain in his face. It’s something that Yeonjun would describe as relief, like opening your eyes to your significant other sleeping on a same pillow with you.</p><p>“Well, I’ll just…” he shuts the door from his side again, opting to occupy the passenger seat while Soobin is still trying to get the guy to move for his sake.</p><p>By whatever means, the tall guy managed to squeeze himself into the car. His soft laughter filling the vehicle, mixing with muttered complaints from the half-asleep boy. When Yeonjun peers at them from the rearview mirror, Beomgyu is not lying down anymore. He has climbed to sit on top of the other guy, straddling his lap and clinging onto him that way as he drifts back to sleep.</p><p>That easily.</p><p>It’s not much of a confusion, since he has lived with Soobin for almost all his life, and Soobin is not the person who is trying to kill him. So the reaction is not as severe as when Yeonjun woke him up from a nightmare last time.</p><p>Still, he can’t explain the nagging feeling in his guts.</p><p>It’s not like he is the type to want his prey to be comfortable around him. He enjoys the chase and the feeling of being the one with the upper hand, the predator.</p><p>Perhaps it’s his competitiveness taking over him, making him strive to be better than Soobin in every other thing and not just the shooting. It has nothing to do with winning Beomgyu’s trusts or making the guy comfortable around him.</p><p>Absolutely not.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>The fun trip turns out to be a decoy. It’s a sign of upcoming sleepless nights and stakeouts.</p><p>While Soobin and Beomgyu are busy working on their useless study sessions with that glasses guy, Yeonjun is responsible for two important jobs. Two groups of people relying on him.</p><p>That night, a pile of files are presented right before his eyes on his bed by none other than Choi Beomgyu, who is smiling sweetly like he didn’t just tell him to kill these four people in the span of one week. As Beomgyu is prohibited from going out as a bait anymore (courtesy of Choi Soobin), Yeonjun has to pay a visit to the hitmen instead.</p><p>“Seriously, why don’t you just tell your men to kill these people for you? It’s easier that way.”</p><p>“They are bodyguards and detectives, not paid killers. That’s the only reason why I hired you, Choi Yeonjun,” Beomgyu smirks. “You’re my dog. Do the dirty jobs for me.”</p><p>That’s the reason why he is trapped in this mess. His boot lands with heavy weight on each stair case while he’s dragging his sprained leg to climb four level high. It’s just his luck that he has to chase after this target to his pig sty of a cheap goshiwon building.</p><p>His target is probably a rookie who is paid in lower price, trying to climb his rank by a successful assassination of this rich young master. What could he lose if he fails? His pride, or the worst case would be a few years of his life because of a jail sentence. Unfortunately, he did not expect the existence of a double agent like Yeonjun.</p><p>The man can’t be much older than he is, but his stamina is lower, judging from how he is heaving for breath as they reached the very top of the staircase. The door to the rooftop is locked, so it leaves him no choice other than to fight back.</p><p>“Who sent you? I swear you won’t get anything by killing me!”</p><p>Yeonjun is really not in the mood for this kind of talk. His ankle aches with every step that he takes and he is still tired from the flight of staircase.</p><p>“Are you sure? I think you’re familiar with how it works in our profession.”</p><p>“Someone hired you to kill me? That can’t be.”</p><p>“I know right? Let’s just end this,” he sighs, taking out a knife strapped to his boot.</p><p>The other male’s eyes glint at the presence of the weapon. Of course he recognized it, as it is the same tool he has used for the last three kills. It’s amazing how Beomgyu’s private eye team could discover this much details about the paid killer -  his basic profile such as name, age, and education, agency, weapon choice, and then a list of possible victims.</p><p>It’s amazing what you can find out when you’re rich.</p><p>There’s this sick idea of his to end the guy with a same weapon he is using, and it’s dangerous. When the person charges after him, Yeonjun is lucky that he is not heaving for breath anymore. He easily side steps the attack, sinking his knife into the latter’s guts and pushing him over the rail of the staircase. A muffled scream can be heard while he doesn’t even take a look to make sure the guy is dead for good. He takes off his blood-stained gloves, stuffing them into the pocket of his leather jacket.</p><p>That’s a clean kill, seeing that there’s no speck of blood on his shirt. But it’s also a tiring one. Now he has to drag his pained leg down the flight of staircases, and make sure he didn’t get caught by the security camera as he does so.</p><p>When he is back at the dorm, Beomgyu is still awake.</p><p>He is lying on his stomach on the bed, round glasses perched on his nose as he is reading some textbooks scattered on his bed. He only spares a quick look when Yeonjun staggers in, turning back to write on his notebook right away as if he is not acknowledging his roommate’s presence.</p><p>It takes five minutes for him to process the fact that something is off. By the time he jerks up on the bed into a sitting position, Yeonjun has already ridden himself of his jacket and boots, now sitting on the floor while trying to figure out what to do with his swollen ankle.</p><p>“You’re hurt. Did you get shot?” he asks, looking down at Yeonjun’s fingers that are wrapped around his ankle. “Fuck, I don’t think the medic team in this campus can handle gunshot wound. We should call an ambulance, but how do we—“</p><p>“Hey, chill. That’s a lot of panic for a stranger you hired to kill people.”</p><p>“Exactly! I made you do this job, so if you died, it will be on me!” Beomgyu shouts, jumping off the bed so he can crawl over to him and swat his hand away. As soon as he caught the sight of reddened skin on his ankle, Beomgyu heaves a relieved sigh, whacking him in the arm.</p><p>“Ow! How is it my fault that you didn’t let me explain?” he hisses.</p><p>“You shouldn’t have exaggerated it, dumbass. This is nothing!”</p><p>“It hurts, though.”</p><p>Beomgyu sits on his knees, lips pursed out into that small pout he always has on his face when he is thinking. “That’s right. Probably need to out some ice on it. Or you won’t be able to walk to class tomorrow.”</p><p>“I’m literally wounded, but I still have to come to class?”</p><p>“The important math quiz is tomorrow.”</p><p>“Even more reason not to show up.”</p><p>That earns him a squint from the guy, just before he gets up to the small fridge they have in the room. When he returns, he presses a can of freezing cola onto the swollen part of his foot, earning a cuss. Beomgyu only glares at him, keeping the can pressed to his foot even at his exaggerated pained noise. Eventually he quietens down, staring at Beomgyu’s eyelashes through the lenses of his glasses.</p><p>“You sound like Soobin. Didn’t take you as a type to panic over someone else’s wound and a math quiz,” he comments, a derisive grin on his lips. A light flush colours Beomgyu’s cheeks for a second before he whacks the elder again with his free hand.</p><p>“Don’t be such an ungrateful ass. I’m only doing this because I don’t like it when someone’s hurt for my sake,” he rolls his eyes, purposely pressing harder onto the sprained ankle and making Yeonjun yelp, grabbing onto his thin wrist.</p><p>“Stop that!” he hisses. The pressure is loosened, but still enough to give the cooling sensation that he needs for the ache. He keeps his hand around the wrist as he speaks again, trying to hold the other’s gaze. “Are you sure, though? You won’t cry if I get wounded for something else? Like throwing myself down the stairs because I’m forced to learn high school’s maths?”</p><p>A snort comes from the blonde before he shakes from silent laughter. “I would push you down the stairs to help you with it, then.”</p><p>“You would, really?”</p><p>He looks up just as he says that, finally catching Yeonjun’s eyes. This is the first time he actually <em>looks</em> into the pair of eyes after the first night in his mansion. They are blinking at him now, in slow manner at first, as if scrutinizing him through his orbs, and then the connection is gone. The guy tears his gaze away abruptly. The icy sensation on his foot disappears as Beomgyu drops the can and goes to crawl back into his bed.</p><p>“I really need to study.”</p><p>Yeonjun cocks his head to a side, watching the back of the blonde’s head for a moment before he sighs and takes the can to press it back to his swollen ankle. It’s the first time someone is actually worried about him, and it has to be someone whose concern he doesn’t deserve to have.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. danger (of betrayal)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After several attempts of kidnappings and assassinations, you would think that someone would have a stronger mentality. It only takes Beomgyu a week of mid-term tests to break him down, leaving him blanking out on his seat while the other students are packing up their things to leave the class. Time seems to flow just like a thick gooey substance—slow and unmoving—when your head is filled by physics formula.</p><p>“—gyu?”</p><p>He snaps himself back into the right zone, blinking a few times until the face before him comes into focus. It’s Taehyun, watching him closely with a pair of big, unblinking eyes.</p><p>“Are you still alive or did the physics god took your soul away?” he jokes—assumedly, as he keeps his face straight while saying that. It’s one of the things that makes Taehyun a hilarious guy at times, according to normal Beomgyu.</p><p>This Beomgyu who has a thick liquid in the place of his brain just stares at his friend. “He took my soul away when he took my paper… I haven’t finished writing the answer for the very last problem.”</p><p>“No need to worry about that one, really. No one knows how to do that one, so you wouldn’t be able to get it right even if you finished.”</p><p>At his statement, Beomgyu blinks a few times, trying to decide whether he should be offended or relieved. That’s when Soobin joins in.</p><p>“Wanna go for ice cream? We got three hours before the online class for German tutoring.”</p><p>Thinking how his brain is going to be stuffed with more materials makes Beomgyu groan, dropping his head to bang it gently against the table. He feels fingers running through his hair in a comforting manner, yet it doesn’t help casting away the physics formula from flying around his head.</p><p>When he peeks up, he sees Yeonjun leaving the classroom with a guitar case slung over his shoulder. Now, <em>that</em> makes him perk up at once. He sits up straight, newfound sparks evident in his eyes.</p><p>“I think I know what I need to do.”</p><p>“Something that doesn’t require a lot of attention so you’ll come back in three hours?” Soobin suggests, but he is looking down at Beomgyu with a threatening look.</p><p>“It depends! But really, you two go get the ice cream and I’ll catch up with you, okay?”</p><p>Without waiting for an answer, he grabs his bag from the table’s side, making a run outside of the class.</p><p>Soobin caught up to him before he could get far, taking his hand and cornering him at the top of the staircases. He is not sure what he did wrong, but he feels guilty there, as he stares into his best friend’s accusing eyes.</p><p>“You can’t get mad at me, technically I haven’t got into it yet,” he says.</p><p> “You know he is bad news,” Soobin rolls his eyes, unfazed by his attempt to get out of this conversation since both of them know what Beomgyu is trying to do. He even goes so far as keeping a hand extended on the side of Beomgyu’s hips, blocking his way. “Why are you so attracted to dangerous things? And attract them?”</p><p>Beomgyu stares at him with a pout for a moment before his lips spread into a teasing smile. “So cute, worrying about me.”</p><p>“Excuse me, I am your bodyguard.”</p><p>“Even so, you can enjoy your break once in a while. I’m giving you a day off today, so you should spend your day without thinking about me for once!” he says, craning his neck to look into the class from where they are standing. “Spend time with Taehyun.”</p><p>“How can I not think about you…” Soobin looks exasperated, but his words trail off into silence, earning a curious look from the blonde.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Nevermind. Just, think about it when you talk to Choi Yeonjun, whatever you are trying to do now. Don’t let him drag you into whatever hell he came from.”</p><p>Beomgyu laughs, tiptoeing just to be on eye level with Soobin and flicks his forehead gently. “Seems like you’re just jealous that I’m not around you all the time now, huh?”</p><p>Soobin sputters, and Beomgyu slips away from the trap, running down the staircase before he can retort further. It leaves the rational one out of them shouting after him from the top of the staircase.</p><p>“Come back in time for the language class!”</p><p>It falls on deaf ears.</p><p> </p><p> It’s just his luck that Yeonjun’s leg is still hurting, so he easily caught up as the guy almost reached the gate.</p><p>Earlier this morning, Yeonjun has set up the alarm just to grab his rifle bag—the guitar case he is carrying right now. He didn’t say anything when Beomgyu started to question his intention, only shoving a stack of files into his face. It was uncalled for, but upon reading, Beomgyu knows just what the guy is planning to do for the day.</p><p>“Bet you messed up your physics test today.”</p><p>Yeonjun glances at him, disinterested. “Yeah, so? It’s not like I’m going to graduate with you guys.”</p><p>“I can fix your scores for you, but you have to take me wherever you’re going today!”</p><p>The proposal makes the elder stop on his track, almost making him bump against his back, but stopping just in time to look up at him with anticipation. They lock eyes for a moment before Yeonjun breaks it with a scoff, shaking his head.</p><p>“You really need to bribe someone every time you want something?” he asks.</p><p>There’s no mocking tone or the usual annoying smirk on his plush lips, yet the question makes Beomgyu’s face warms up with shame. It’s always how he makes things work for himself. When he needs friends, he can just offer favours to them so those kids will play with him. When he wants to skip class, he pays the school so they won’t tell his parents about it. This is something that he is not proud about, but it <em>works</em>.</p><p>Apparently, not with Yeonjun.</p><p>He stomps his foot impatiently, folding his arms across his chest. “Do you want it or not? I can make it happen.”</p><p>“You don’t need to do that. It’s not like I need the grade,” Beomgyu perks up at that, nodding quickly with a smile forming back on his lips, which disappears when Yeonjun continues. “But there’s a catch.”</p><p>“Tch—“</p><p>“I’m not your bodyguard, so you’ll be going out with me without any protection. Are you up for this?”</p><p>There should be fear closing in around him right now. He is about to agree to out with someone who was after his life barely two weeks ago. Meanwhile, he had to bring at least one bodyguard along with him at all times. He even had to beg Soobin when he wants to go out with just the two of them. He should be scared.</p><p>But now, looking into Yeonjun’s challenging eyes, Beomgyu finds himself growing a firm resolution in his chest.</p><p>Soobin’s voice in the back of his mind is telling him that this is such a bad idea, yet his hand is already reaching out to take Yeonjun’s arm.</p><p>“In that case, I need to change and disguise myself!”</p><p> </p><p>His disguise causes more dismay to Yeonjun than anyone else. The hitman has to watch as he saunters around the street wearing his beloved leather jacket. It just came out of laundry and it still smells really good, so Yeonjun must be extra pissed. Even more so as he has to accompany the blonde on his snack-hunting trip in the shopping mall.</p><p>“I already told you we’re not here to play—I swear, if I knew that you’re just going to mess things up…”</p><p>“We need snacks for the stakeouts, okay!” he excuses himself, hugging the bag of churros he bought. “Do you want milk tea?”</p><p>Yeonjun gives in at that, or rather doesn’t have any choice as the guy is already tugging him towards a vendor. “I do want one.”</p><p>“I thought you’d be more of a bitter coffee type,” Beomgyu says after the vendor took his order, bouncing the balls of his feet a little. One of the reasons he’s hyped for this ‘mission’ is the opportunity to buy snacks and unhealthy sugar.</p><p>“What gave you the idea?”</p><p>“You’re old.”</p><p>“I’m not that old! Besides milk tea is for all age.”</p><p>“Strawberry milk tea with pudding and jellies, really?”</p><p>Just in time as he said that, the takeaway cup with a pink coloured drink is served, making Beomgyu burst into a silent laughter as Yeonjun snatches the cup away sulkily.</p><p>“I’m only 20.”</p><p>“Huh, you’re just two years older than me?” Beomgyu arches a brow, taking his drink and carrying it along with his churro bag.</p><p>Now that he actually <em>looks</em> at Yeonjun, he doesn’t look that old. Especially now that he is wearing his uniform shirt, with the tie perpetually loosened around his collar and the top button undone. His lips are pouted as he’s just finished drinking from the straw. It must be the air around this man that makes him look intimidating and older than he actually is at times.</p><p>“I’m offended.”</p><p>Beomgyu laughs. “Can I call you hyung, then? Yeonjun hyung?”</p><p>“Hard no,” the elder throws a look at him, which only makes him squint back and rotates on his feet to stomp away. Just for being annoying, now Yeonjun has to accompany him for a few more snacks before he can do his work.</p><p> </p><p>A few hours later, Yeonjun finally snapped and dragged Beomgyu away from the food vendors. That did not happen before they ate crepes and played one round of claw machine game, so he knows that Yeonjun must have enjoyed it to some extent. A little having fun won’t hurt considering the grim thing they are doing afterwards.</p><p>Beomgyu is not sure how a stakeout or a hitman in a mission supposed to look like, but he knows that it shouldn’t be like this.</p><p>They are sitting at the dirty floor on a rooftop of the shopping mall, bags of snacks scattered around them and sounds of games coming from the Nintendo clutched in Beomgyu’s hands. Yeonjun is sitting higher up on a stool, a binoculars dangling from his fingers after he used it to peer down onto the street across the building.</p><p>“You’ll be bored out of your mind if it were not for me,” he says suddenly, already bored of the dragging silence and lack of actions.</p><p>“No fucking way. Your game is bothering me.”</p><p>“Maybe I will turn it down if you let me call you hyung, old man.”</p><p>Beomgyu pries his gaze away from his game for a second just to catch the other male rolling his eyes. He pokes his tongue out at him, chuckling as he goes back to his game. It doesn’t last for long as he gets bored already. Moreover, he can’t turn on his phone because the German class must be ending already and Soobin would have all the time in the world to nag him for leaving with only a single text of <em>‘I’m hanging out with YJ! Have fun speaking German. &lt;3’.</em></p><p>So that leaves him slumping down on the floor with a blank stare towards the darkening sky. It’s a wonder how Yeonjun can do this alone for a long time, especially since he is not moving from his position for the last hour.</p><p>You’d think being a hitman is a badass job full of actions and killings.</p><p>“Wanna see?” Yeonjun is the one who breaks the silence afterwards. He looks more relaxed now, leaning back and gesturing to the rifle with his chin.</p><p>He doesn’t need to be offered twice, jumping off from the floor and crawling towards the elder quickly. Yeonjun is still holding the weapon, only tilting it closer to him so he can peer down through the lenses. The view makes him dizzy upon a first look, and then it gets clearer as he can spot some people on the street. He puts his hand on top of Yeonjun’s to make him steer the view somewhere else, trying not to look like he’s super excited about it, yet a tiny squeal escaped his lips.</p><p>“It looks easy to aim! Maybe I should change professions.”</p><p>Yeonjun scoffs.</p><p>“Seeing how you performed with normal gun, you wouldn’t be anywhere near these beauties for like ten years.”</p><p>“HEY!”</p><p>“It took me a while until my trainer let me handle this. It’s like a dream come true.”</p><p>“Weird dream.”</p><p>“Haha,” Yeonjun deadpans, turning his hand to catch Beomgyu’s and position it right atop of the rifle instead. It’s cold and unfamiliar, the feeling of having his hand on a deadly weapon. But Yeonjun’s hand is warm, guiding his fingers until he can feel the trigger under the pad of his index finger. He just realized now how close the elder is, as if he’s peeking down through the lenses with him. He can only feel Yeonjun’s breath against the back of his earlobe when he speaks. “It’s just exhilarating, okay? The control you have when you aim from higher up with this gun, and then just click,” he puts a slight pressure on Beomgyu’s finger, feigning a movement of clicking on the trigger.</p><p>Beomgyu stiffens up, imagining the body of this woman he is staring at from his lenses really drops down among the people in the street. Imagining that day in the Chinese restaurant if Soobin wasn’t quick enough to catch him and he is the one who drops down.</p><p>“Your trainer really taught a kid how to use guns?”</p><p>“At first not, but after a long time of begging and crying, he gave up. He was the only family I had.”</p><p>Beomgyu bites his lip, remembering the information about family he read in Yeonjun’s file. Yeonjun had a mother, who was not in the right mind to take care of him, always drunk and using drugs. There was a record for thievery and he was thrown in juvenile detention service for a year. Then no trace of him. So that must be his years of training leading to his profession now.</p><p>“Enough talks about me. I’m working.”</p><p>Yeonjun finally pulls away, and Beomgyu can breathe again. He lets the elder handle his rifle again, dropping himself back on the floor after snatching a thin stack of papers from Yeonjun’s feet. It’s the files of his target, the killer who’s paid to kill him. Curious, he ends up reading through it. He got time to kill anyway.</p><p>“What’s the deal with this guy anyway? Wait what, he’s a teacher?” he frowns, rereading that part over and over in case it was a mistake.</p><p>“Full time teacher, part time hitman. I can’t believe they hired someone who’s not 100% in this job to have your head.’</p><p>“Thank you?”</p><p>“He’s usually leaving that learning centre around 7, but we’re staying here just in case.”</p><p>Thinking about how the man walks out after teaching those kids, clueless about what’s happening because he’s usually behind the rifle and not otherwise. He already has the whole lesson planned for the next day, and then suddenly everything’s taken away from him. He won’t even know why he’s suddenly lying down on the pavement in the puddle of his own blood.</p><p>Thinking about it makes shiver run through Beomgyu’s body. He tightens the leather jacket around his frame and opts to hug his knees. Resting his cheek on one of his knees, he tilts his head to stare at Yeonjun’s side profile.</p><p>“Do you ever regret choosing to be this kind of person?” Beomgyu asks. “People die in your hands, not knowing what they did. At least <em>I</em> would have died in your hand that way.”</p><p>“Sometimes I feel guilty, but I don’t regret my years of training that led to the person I am now. The society is cruel, and we’re just something born from the cruelty.”</p><p>“If you felt guilty, why didn’t you think of stopping?”</p><p>Yeonjun is silent for a bit, and Beomgyu is scared that he might be overstepping their boundaries here. It’s not like they’re friends and he doesn’t even like this guy, but here he is commenting about his life choices.</p><p>“Maybe there’s something wrong with me… a fault in my code. In my head.”</p><p>There’s no excuse to what Yeonjun has done, the lives diminished under his hands. But Beomgyu can see how he can never understand that, as he’s lived in a sheltered life. It’s not about what goes on in Yeonjun’s head anymore. He should be scared, knowing that the man next to him is capable of shedding blood without any guilt, even Beomgyu’s blood. But his heart just aches for him.</p><p>Can’t believe there comes a day where he tries to understand the point of view of a contract killer.</p><p>“There he is,” Yeonjun whispers under his breath.</p><p>Beomgyu tenses up as he sees the male lifting up his rifle, positioning it over the ledge of the rooftop as he aims down the street. He doesn’t know where to look, but he caught a view of the man who is supposed to be the target. The man who will be all over the news tomorrow… So he looks at the hitman instead, studying his face as he does his kill. The clench of his jaw and the grit of his teeth.</p><p>When the shot was released, there’s a split second of anguish in his eyes. He might have imagined it, since the moment Yeonjun turns around to see him, he is smiling smugly. “Clean shot.”</p><p>He really should be scared of this guy. What’s the deal with Beomgyu being drawn to danger at the most dangerous point of his life?</p><p>While Beomgyu is still sitting there in shock, Yeonjun is already stuffing his rifle back into his guitar case. He seems to be in hurry, and it alerts Beomgyu a little too late.</p><p>“What? What’s happening?”</p><p>“I forgot to tell you,” he says as he gets up on his feet, slinging the guitar case over his shoulder. “We have to leave within the first minute of the kill. It’s a basic rule.”</p><p>“Why didn’t you tell me?” Beomgyu shrieks.</p><p>It’s a short moment of chaos as they try to clean up the snacks wrappers and any signs of them being there. By the first minute mark, they are already running down the emergency staircases, all the way from the rooftop to the alley where the door leads them to. As the door slams closed behind them, Beomgyu doubles over with a choked laugh, catching his breath while he’s at it, but still looks more amused than anything else.</p><p>“You’re crazy!”</p><p>“And you are not? We’re only this slow because you insisted on saving your churros!”</p><p>“I still have some left, why would you waste food when there are people starving everywhere in the world, you privileged asshole.”</p><p>“Me?! I’m the privileged one?”</p><p>Once they are on the street, they are no more than a couple of high school student and a guy with borrowed leather jacket, bickering all the way down their path without any care of the people walking around them.</p><p>As they turn over a corner of the street, they can see people gathering around a certain spot. Some are running away, but mostly stay there to watch—probably to upload something on the internet in order to make it viral. They are no different than the killer, who is standing casually by Beomgyu’s side.</p><p>When the police car sirens start to get a little louder, they make a little run towards a quieter street a few blocks away, not stopping until they reached a calm area. The breeze blowing over them without any mercy. A sign of impending rainstorm.</p><p>Beomgyu chews on a stale churros while leaning his back against a graffiti wall. He sticks his arms into the pockets of the jacket while they wait on the side of a street. His driver is already on the way to pick him up after his call a moment ago. Yeonjun has informed him that he had to do another stakeout, and he won’t be coming back with him to the dorm. He should be relieved, because then the guy won’t take any more videos of him ‘talking in his sleep’.</p><p>“You’re really not going back? There are only so many times we can break the curfew without getting suspended.”</p><p>“Speaking from experience?”</p><p>“Shut up.”</p><p>“Thank you for accompanying me, I guess. It was less boring without you.” Beomgyu blinks. “But I need you to remember that I’m not your classmate. I’m someone you hired to do your dirty works for you, so at the end of day, you won’t see me where you expect to see.”</p><p>The last bite of churro feels rough on his throat, and really, it shouldn’t be hurting him that much, especially because the guy is just repeating what he’s been saying. Perhaps he’s been too comfortable, looking at Yeonjun as his friend instead of a danger.</p><p>“I got it,” he finally says. “Hyung.”</p><p>Yeonjun rolls his eyes. “Whatever.”</p><p>“I knew you’d cave in,” Beomgyu smiles, pushing himself off the wall as he recognizes the car slowing down before them. He gives another look at the latter. “You won’t run away, right?”</p><p>“A little too late to ask that now, but you still got me collared, remember?” he grins, lifting up his arm to show the leather bracelet around his wrist.</p><p>He watches Yeonjun walk off to the other direction of the street. The guitar case hanging over a shoulder and a hand stuck inside the pocket of his uniform pants. Watching as Yeonjun’s frame getting smaller before disappearing on a corner of the street, Beomgyu is reminded on just how far apart the worlds they are living in.</p><p>He needs to get his shit together.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>It’s been a while since Yeonjun stays in his apartment, not that he usually spends a long time in here.</p><p>He spends a lot of time out on the street instead, stalking his targets or gathering data about them. When he is not working on a case, he sometimes chose to spend his time at the headquarter—on the basement with a private bar where people from the agency can meet to bond. It’s a risky one, seeing that there can be a spy lurking among them, but it’s never been a problem for him before. Not until he realizes that he is the spy.</p><p>Just in time to confirm his line of thoughts, his phone chimes with a message alert, right in time as he enters the apartment. His clothes are still wet from the sudden drizzle of rain. While he stares down at his phone, the huge window next to him is displaying the dark city drenched in rain.</p><p>Before even reading the messages, he knows it’s bad news.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Need to talk about sth </em>
</p><p>
  <em>HQ?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Not until tomorrow, no.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>stakeout.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>This is important, though.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Tomorrow morning.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Ok. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Don’t bail, Daniel.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Absolutely no time to rest.</p><p> </p><p>When he enters the bar next morning, it’s deserted. Not much of a wonder as it’s still early and people don’t drink. Most people, at least, seeing how the girl who texted him is already there, sipping on her cocktail glass. Her silver hair shines coolly under the warm light of the place.</p><p>The sound made by the thick soles of his boots are audible in the vacant floor, until they stop once he reaches the bar.</p><p>“I thought this place is a coffee shop in the morning,” he retorts as he takes the stool next to her, tapping the bar to get the attention from the attendant and ordering a cup of mint coffee.</p><p>She makes a face at the order. “Still bad taste as always, Daniel.”</p><p>“Same goes to you, Saku.”</p><p>It’s hilarious for Yeonjun that they already knew each other since the time Yeonjun entered the agency, dated for a few months, and they are still calling each other by codename. He doesn’t even know her real name. He only knows the fact that this girl is dangerous, and she can end his life without any precautions or pain. One injection of a needle and he’s out.</p><p>Sakura is specialized in chemical. She is a university graduate with a degree in biochemistry, yet she is using her knowledge and skill to make sure that the dosage of some substance is enough to kill her target. Easier money, she had said, and bigger thrill.</p><p>Yeonjun can’t blame her for that.</p><p>“So what’s this about? It’s not like you to ask for a meeting.”</p><p>“It’s super unlike me not to text an ex, especially. But since you’re cute, I will make an exception,” she says, turning on her stool to face him and tickles his chin. Yeonjun recoils from the touch with an indignant huff.</p><p>“Okay, I know there’s something important, or else it wouldn’t be so urgent. Or like, you’d just come to my apartment.”</p><p>“Well, cause we know what would happen if we end up there,” she says with a feigned sigh, winking at him.</p><p>Yeonjun gives her a look. “Nope. Next.”</p><p>“Fine. I need to talk to you about your work in progress. That Choi kid.” this gets his attention, making him lower his cup of coffee and stare at her instead. A smirk grows on her lips upon his look. “I take it that you have difficulties ending it since you have to make it look an accident. You’re always messy, after all.”</p><p>“Excuse you, I don’t have any difficulties, at all.”</p><p>“You took awfully long just to kill a kid. What happened? Growing soft?”</p><p>“I can deal with that. You don’t have to insert yourself into what’s mine.”</p><p>“Taehyung asked me to,” she smiles, a triumphant edge to it seeing the incredulity in Yeonjun’s face. “Don’t you think he finds you slacking? We should fix that, honey.”</p><p>It’s not that. Yeonjun knows all along that she’s also hired by someone else to do this job, which makes 3 of the people from the agency already. He had been scared when he received the file with her name on it, but also relieved because there’s no way she can carry out this job properly.</p><p>Her modus operandi is to get close to her preys, seducing them or acting nice to them before stabbing them with a needle or poisoning their drinks. With how strict the protection around Beomgyu and the limitation of the boy’s social contact, it’s impossible for her to slither her way into his circle.</p><p>It’s just his luck that Sakura approached him first about this matter, so he won’t have to flirt her way into her pants to mimic her way of trickery. That’s why instead of turning around and leave like every other time he caught a sight of the strawberry blonde haired girl, he stays silent.</p><p>“70 to 30. You just have to lure the boy out from his hiding place and I’ll do the killing. You’d still get more, too. Isn’t that benefiting?”</p><p>“You just want to gain back Taehyung’s trust, don’t you?”</p><p>It’s nice, rubbing that failure against her face and seeing the flirty smile fades from her visage at the mention of their strict supervisor. It’s not like Taehyung is extra mean, but he never tolerates failure and expects his people to pay back 2000%fold.</p><p>Sakura easily forms a smile back on her face, hopping off her stool just to inch closer to Yeonjun. She brings her glass of liquor, pressing it against his plush lips. No matter how he sees it, it’s a dangerous thing to join her in this. She is a smart one, already been in the field for years before Yeonjun joined. She’s also slick and always on top of her games, which is one of the reasons why Yeonjun was attracted to her in the first place. But that’s also why he lost interest. It’s so hard dating a fox, especially one that keeps many other boy toys.</p><p>In the end, he lets her feed him the drink, feeling the burn slide down his throat. She takes it as an agreement to work together.</p><p>“Perfect. I’ll give you the time and place of the mission, okay? Just bring the boy, and we’ll finish this together,” she said, placing the glass aside before pressing herself closer to him. Her wet lips pressed high on his neck, right below his earlobe, as she whispers. “Just like the old days.”</p><p>In the old days, people from the agency often work together for a difficult mission. It always ends up in blood and betrayal because of their greed. Yeonjun is not sure if she meant that, but he knows what he’s going to do by now.</p><p>So he fakes a smile, the usual smitten way he used to have in the past when he sees her.</p><p>“Can’t wait.”</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>At noon, Yeonjun finds his way back to the academy.</p><p>It’s still a wonder how this school is still not reprimanding him from leaving the area anytime he wishes, yet he keeps getting detention for sleeping in class. It makes him question if the school really puts safety on top of everything like they claim.</p><p>If he were sticking with his initial task to befriend Beomgyu just to stab him from the back and make it look like an accident, it will be easy for him to do. Especially because the blonde is always eager to leave the school whenever he can. In that way, they have something in common. It’s just that Beomgyu’s movements are more restricted, with Soobin watching him like an eagle.</p><p>That. Or like a fool in love. There’s no in between.</p><p>That’s the first thing he has to see upon entering the cafeteria. Those three are eating lunch together again, with Beomgyu eating his lunch in tiny bites, spending more time talking than actually eating, while Soobin stuffs his food into his cheeks. His eyes trained on Beomgyu as if he’s listening, but Yeonjun learnt from experience that he’s just staring.</p><p>The only one who notices him is Taehyun, glaring dagger at him from across the room, so he swerves to sit at another table after getting his free lunch. Bless this place for their free lunches.</p><p>When he is busy gobbling down rice, someone else occupies the seat across of him. “Hi, can I join you?”</p><p>He just grunts in reply, couldn’t care less about some high school student trying to befriend him. His admission into the school is going to be terminated soon anyway, especially seeing that he has gotten rid of half his required targets.</p><p>“My name is Kai, I’m a childhood friend of Beomgyu,” the guy speaks again once he sits down. Now, this piques Yeonjun’s interest, making him look up to actually look at the boy.</p><p>He is tall, and he has a good face. Still, he’s just another rich kid from the academy. The breed Yeonjun hates the most.</p><p>“And why would a childhood friend of Beomgyu talk to me?” he cocks his head to a side, eyeing the guy curiously while still shoving food to his cheek.</p><p>“He said you’re his boyfriend.”</p><p>“I’m his <em>what?</em>”</p><p>“But I don’t care about that. I just think you’re familiar, so I want to talk to you some more. Are your parents perhaps partners of mine? Our group is called Huening, so it shouldn’t be hard to miss.”</p><p>“I don’t have any parents. And I honestly don’t care about being buddy buddy with rich kids. Do you really just want to be friends?”</p><p>“No,” Kai answers frankly, offering a smile nonetheless. “I just think you just sound really familiar.”</p><p>Why would a rich, sheltered kid find him familiar? Unless…</p><p>“Why are you guys sitting together?” Beomgyu makes appearance at their table before he could dig more. He has a frown on his face. “This is not a common sight.”</p><p>“Just making friends, Beomgyu. I’m actually capable of doing that, unlike someone.” The angelic looking guy smiles sweetly at Beomgyu who looks like he is going to start blowing steam from his ears. “Here you go, I think you need two servings. No worries, I haven’t touched it. See you around!”</p><p>“See you!” Yeonjun’s attitude change in the face of extra food.</p><p>Beomgyu sits across of him and watches him eat with a scowl on his face. “I couldn’t sleep last night because I saw you kill someone.”</p><p>“Who asked you to watch me?”</p><p>“I couldn’t sleep, and it turns out you were having fun with your significant other.”</p><p>Yeonjun snorts at that. “Significant other… what even…”</p><p>“Hook-up or something!”</p><p>He’s still confused for a moment until Beomgyu points at his neck, and he remembers the heat from Sakura’s mouth on his skin. Of course that sly girl would leave a mark for the fun of it, especially since she knew that he’s pretending to be a high schooler.</p><p>“You know what is this? Maybe you’re not as sheltered as I thought.”</p><p>If Beomgyu was about to blow steam earlier, the steam is now rushing into his face, coloring his face in a warm pink shade. His cheeks puffed up for a second before he speaks again.</p><p>“It’s not much of a big deal.”</p><p>“Wanna know what adults do to have these?”</p><p>“I will bite your head off.”</p><p>Yeonjun laughs, interrupted by a vibration on his phone. He fishes it out of his pocket, face darkening from the earlier smiling one as he saw a message from none other than Sakura. That’s fast. She’s really desperate to complete this task.</p><p>“Bad news, I don’t think I can join that dinner thing with your uncle,” he says, deadpanning at the latter even as he’s only playing along to the game. “Guess you can’t bring along your boyfriend.”</p><p>It takes a moment for Beomgyu to process that. “What, why? Isn’t that our plan? After killing everyone, you have to end my uncle who hired you. That will be the perfect ending to our plan!”</p><p>“I have this thing I need to take care of… Besides, it’s connected with the job. So I can just come late to the party, to make it more fun.”</p><p>Beomgyu still doesn’t look convinced, but he’s nodding in the end. He must still be pretty pissed, or he took his words from last time seriously because he’s not sticking around. As they both quietened down, he gets up from his seat to go back to his former table where Soobin and Taehyun are still discussing something from a textbook.</p><p>With the boy gone, Yeonjun starts thinking more about their plan for the weekend. If he can take care of Sakura, he should be able to gain information on who hired them both, and maybe that would give him more reassurance that the uncle is the one behind everything.</p><p>The only thing that bothers him is that Beomgyu’s uncle doesn’t really fit the image of the masked guy he saw at the beginning of this whole thing.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. blood(y tears)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The dreaded weekend finally comes.</p><p>Soobin doesn’t look totally dismayed about it. He’s even humming a song on their way to the uncle’s house, wearing his favourite jacket. If he doesn’t know better, Beomgyu would think that the guy enjoys these visits. The reality is that Soobin always faces bad things with a positive mindset so he won’t feel worse. When they got home, he usually would curse the uncle’s whole family for being a ‘textbook material of a stinky rich politician’. His words.</p><p>Meanwhile, Beomgyu is not as good as hiding his emotions. Nor does he try his best to do it.</p><p>“Smile a bit, won’t you?” the taller male finally talks to him after his nth sigh. “Chaeyeon would probably feel worse since she has to face this every day.”</p><p>“She’s just as bad, though.”</p><p>“She’s the most bearable person in that house.”</p><p>“Maybe to you, just because she’s been harbouring crush on you since we were like 10.”</p><p>Soobin laughs at that. “If you say that to her face, she will set her cat at you again.”</p><p><em>God</em>, no. He can still remember the event from when they were about eleven, fighting for Soobin’s attention like the kids they were while the boy watched them timidly. She threw the cat at Beomgyu’s face, triggering his allergy and sending him straight for a hospital visit. That’s how he knows that Chaeyeon is just as bad as her father.</p><p>Fortunately, the cat is nowhere in sight when they enter the house.</p><p>Only the three people he doesn’t want to see the most.</p><p>“Poor baby. If only you live at home, auntie will stop by every day to cook some food for you,” the so-called ‘auntie’ says, pulling him into a tight hug that makes him wince. Thank god for his decision to enter a boarding school.</p><p>After all the small talks, they are finally ushered towards the dining room. There is a big table full of a variety of homemade meal. If there is one thing that makes these visits bearable, it’s the chef.</p><p>“You actually look a little sickier than the last time we met. Everything’s been good?”</p><p>Beomgyu clenches his hand around the handle of his fork, swallowing the urge to throw the utensil at the man and tell him that he’s only like this because of the hitmen sent by the likes of him. Sensing his boiling anger, Soobin drops his hand to give a squeeze on his thigh, answering the question for him just like any other time Beomgyu is too irritated to answer the old man.</p><p>“We just finished our mid-term exam week, actually. Everything’s been hectic, that’s why. I’m sure Chaeyeon is experiencing the same thing, too?”</p><p>The long haired girl perks up at the mention. She has been silent for the entirety of the meal, but now that she found the chance to talk, she’s totally pouring her utmost attention on Soobin. “That’s right. Mom made me go for extra tutoring sessions too so it’s been extra hell…”</p><p>The talks continued for a while, and this is one of those moments he’s really thankful for the existence of Choi Soobin.</p><p>While they are dragging their useless talks, Beomgyu is finishing his meal in tiny bites, picturing how the event would go if only he brought Yeonjun to the dinner.</p><p>Even then, what would he expect himself to do? Confronting his uncle and accusing him of those seven hitmen sent to him? Asking the killer <em>he</em> hired to kill him instead? Even he can’t do that out of the blue if there’s nothing that acts as a trigger. That’s when he knows that his plan is not flawless and there’s nothing he can do to prove that Jongho was the one who hire Yeonjun.</p><p>Yeonjun, that useless hitman doesn’t even know for sure who hired him.</p><p>After finishing the food in his plate, Beomgyu excuses himself from the conversation to hide in the restroom. He spends a good amount of time just sitting on top of the closed toilet lid and texting Yeonjun to hurry his ass up if he wants to join. There’s no reply from the male, so he just stomps his feet, readying himself to go back to more small talks before they are allowed to go home.</p><p>The silence between the corridors in such big house is something that Beomgyu has gotten familiar with, having grown up in a similar one. He takes his time walking back to the dining room, forcing interest to some modern art framed along the walls.</p><p>That’s when he hears it, muffled conversations travelling through the walls. It comes from behind one of the doors that he passed. It’s really soft, especially because it sounds like the words came muffled by a fabric of mask.</p><p>
  <em>“… them. Without the tall guy, the target will be defenceless. So…”</em>
</p><p>His heart pounds in his chest as he inches closer, pressing himself against the wall next to the door in hope to hear better. He bites his lower lip, holding his breath in hope that it will somehow stops the sound of his heartbeat, too.</p><p>
  <em>“We will wait for a sign, then launch the attack. There’s only one shot, so if we mess up, it’s the end.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Do we take the tall guy, too?” </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“No, we only need the Choi kid. If he gets in the way, we’re allowed to kill…”</em>
</p><p>The rest of the muffled sentence dissipates into the air like a broken radio noise as Beomgyu’s sight is blurred with rage. They are talking casually about killing Soobin and attacking him. It’s just another day of finding someone who’s hired to kill him, but Soobin?</p><p>No one touches <em>his</em> Soobin.</p><p>He managed to drag himself back towards the dining room by whatever means. The four of them are still in the middle of a discussion, but Beomgyu can’t even keep the polite act anymore. A loud sound of something banging against the wood could be heard, jolting him off the little trance, until he realizes that it’s his own hands slamming against the table.</p><p>It takes everything within him to not yell at his uncle. The only thing he has in mind is just surviving.</p><p>“Soobin, let’s go back to the dorm,” he says, ignoring the shocked look from all the eyes in the room. “I’m feeling sick.”</p><p>“Oh no, is it the food?” the auntie asks him.</p><p>“Yes, it is.”</p><p>Soobin gets up from his seat to support him by the arm. But he knows that Soobin would know that he’s acting just from looking into his eyes alone. There’s no more question asked when the guy takes out his phone to text their driver.</p><p>“You can stay, maybe lie down first? Being in a car ride would just make you sicker,” Jongho has the audacity to still act like he cares. Beomgyu would applaud his acting if only he’s not in a role as well.</p><p>“No, thank you. Our driver should be up front already. Thank you for the meal,” Soobin still bothers to offer them a quick bow before he drags Beomgyu towards the front door. There are footsteps of the family following them before they come into a halt.</p><p>That scares him even more.</p><p>The coldness of the living room closes in on him as they walk through it. Too slow.</p><p>“There are other people in this house. It’s not Yeonjun,” he whispers urgently, catching Soobin’s incredulous look as the male goes into his alert mode, hand slipping into his coat where he keeps his gun. “We should just hurry up. Don’t risk it.”</p><p>As soon as he says that, heavy footsteps approached them. Those men are not shooting them, which is a relief, but one of them throws himself at Soobin’s back, dragging him behind just to slow down their moves.</p><p>Everything happens so quickly. A hand pushing him until he’s knocked off his feet, almost falling face first to the ground. The glare he throws when he turns around to watch the brawl, about to push himself up and help Soobin fight the man in the mask. The deafening bang of the gun.</p><p>The last one makes him freeze on his spot, eyes wide and filled with pure fear when Soobin stumbles back.</p><p>It’s not happening.</p><p>It’s still not real, even as he feels the solid form of Soobin’s body hitting him. He caught the taller male in his arms, hands scrambling all over his front, and finding wetness under his palms.</p><p>“Fuck… Choi Soobin, no, this is so not happening. What the heck—“he’s on the verge of another panic attack. The pained look in Soobin’s scrunched face and the redness staining his shirt is transferred to his sight, making it pure red with anger.</p><p>“Just come with your uncle, Beomgyu. I have some proposal to make,” Jongho slowly steps towards him, an arrogant hint on his smile. “We won’t hurt you if only you just come willingly.”</p><p>“I would never come with you, you <em>fucker</em>! I’ve always hated you and I knew this would happen!”</p><p>“If you knew, wouldn’t you be smarter? Just surrender before I make my men knock you out.”</p><p>In the midst of his panic, his fingers are closed around the gun under Soobin’s jacket. He stares at Soobin’s eyes, blinking slowly. The male is saying something to him, but he can’t hear that anymore. All he can hear is the click of the safety released from the gun, and suddenly the room is filled by deafening shots.</p><p>There’s blood as he releases several shoots towards the guy who harmed Soobin, and then several more to chase the other guy away. Jongho is really good at taking cover, as he’s nowhere to see already. He keeps shooting, emptying the clips, and taking his phone out when he feels a vibration of incoming call.</p><p>
  <em>“Hey, I’m just on my way to—“</em>
</p><p>“Can you call an ambulance? Soobin’s hurt,” he sounds eerily calm, it scares even himself. In any second, they will know that he has run out of bullets. “You don’t have to come here, but just make sure that he’s safe. I will kill you if he’s not safe, you got it?”</p><p>“Beomgyu? What’s happening?”</p><p>“CALL AN AMBULANCE FOR GOD’S SAKE,” he screams into the phone, tears leaking out from a corner of his eyes as he sees the other masked man getting up from his cover, pointing a gun at him. “Please? Yeonjunnie hyung, please? I’m begging—“</p><p>The phone clatters to the floor as the shot is released. He can feel a sting from where it hits his chest, making him stumble back on the floor. There’s no pain. Is it from the shock? All he knows is that he’s losing consciousness and there’s someone coming to him, grabbing his arm and separating him from Soobin.</p><p>Everything goes dark before he can say Soobin’s name.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>The meeting with Sakura coincides with Beomgyu’s visit to his uncle’s place, so it gives Yeonjun an excuse to not join in and play house with the guy as his boyfriend. His plan is to show up at the last minute, making a cool entrance by killing the villain once Beomgyu confirms his wicked plan. After that, everything would come to an end. No more working for a snobby rich kid, no more high school and exams, no more betrayals.</p><p>The last one is the thing that bothers him the most.</p><p>Traitors are the lowest breed in his line of job. If they discovered his identity as a double agent, having killed two people from his agency just for a job that wasn’t screened by the agency, they would have a contest between them just to see who can kill him in the fanciest way. It will be known throughout the channels in the agency and Yeonjun really does not want to be the receiving end of that hell.</p><p>“Daniel,” Sakura greets him as he walks into the meeting place.</p><p>She looks well dressed as always, wearing a knee-length lacy black dress with see through fabric over her shoulder. This time, she has a doctor coat draped over her tiny frame. A part of her trick since their plan was to bring Beomgyu over because Yeonjun will be having a meeting with his private doctor for some secret health problem.</p><p>It’s one of the warehouses the girl often uses for her trickery. She likes luring her prey in here to make out, only to stab them in the neck when they are kissing. When they were dating, sometimes Yeonjun had to be cautious to not end up as one of those guys with a mysterious cause of death.</p><p>“You are early.”</p><p>“So are you,” she smiles, tiptoeing to look over his shoulder. “Where’s the little guy?”</p><p>“He gotta distract his bodyguards so he can join us. Might not take too long, though,” he says, quickly adding when he spots a sour look on her face. “He trusts me a lot, don’t worry.”</p><p>“You’ve grown so well since the last time, huh?” she smiles, walking closer to walk her fingers down his chest.</p><p>Yeonjun takes her hand with his own, using it as a leverage to pull her flush against him. She smells like her usual overpriced perfume. “I’m not the same guy you dumped, Saku. Do you think there will be a chance for us, once we’re done with the kid?”</p><p>One thing he knows well about Sakura is the way she likes it when someone worships her. That’s why she liked Yeonjun, wanting someone younger who adores him and look at her like she’s his world. Except, Yeonjun had gotten smarter since then.</p><p>He’s going to use her trick against her.</p><p>“And I thought you hated me, Daniel. Remember the fuss you threw when we separated?”</p><p>“That was long ago, but I still think about you every night, and miss what we used to do,” he said, dropping his voice into a lower tone as he said that and purposely stares at her lips. When he lifts his gaze again, he caught the familiar glint in her eyes before she throws her arms around his neck and pulls him down for a kiss.</p><p>That’s how they end up making out, with Yeonjun sitting on top of one of the carts and Sakura sitting on his lap. Thinking about what he is going to do makes him sick in his stomach, especially because they were used to be good friends before the whole dating and cheating scheme. This is the first time he feels guilty because of a kill.</p><p>“Why’d you stop?” she whines when the kiss is broken, only to freeze upon feeling the barrel of gun pressed under her chin. “Don’t play with me.”</p><p>“I’m so sorry,” he says. And he does mean it this time.</p><p>“Daniel—“</p><p>Her voice is swallowed up by the sound of gunshot blaring in the room. Blood splattered everywhere from the impact, hitting Yeonjun on the cheek and possibly landing on his black shirt. The worst thing is the look of disbelief from her eyes, before they lost their shine as her limp body slide down from his lap and hit the floor. It’s going to haunt him for the next few nights.</p><p>He’s not proud of this. Not at all.</p><p>Not feeling like staying too long in a room with his very dead friend lying on his feet, Yeonjun doesn’t waste any more time to leave the warehouse. He caught a cab on the street a block away from the place, dialling Beomgyu’s number as it drives towards the villain uncle’s place.</p><p>A kill after another. He’s outdone his whole career with five kills over the span of two weeks alone.</p><p>Beomgyu picks up just in time before he’s sent to voice mail.</p><p>“Hey, I’m just on my way to—“</p><p>He hears a hitch of breath first before Beomgyu’s voice interrupts him. <em>“Can you call an ambulance? Soobin’s hurt,”</em> he says. <em>“You don’t have to come here, but just make sure that he’s safe. I will kill you if he’s not safe, you got it?”</em></p><p>Something’s happening. Soobin’s hurt and Beomgyu can’t call an ambulance on his own? Moreover, he can’t stay there?</p><p>“Beomgyu? What’s happening?”</p><p><em>“CALL AN AMBULANCE FOR GOD’S SAKE,”</em> he flinches when Beomgyu yells at him. It’s not a rare occasion, but this one sounds more urgent, more desperate. It doesn’t help that he sounds like he’s on the verge of crying when he continues. He sounds absolutely broken that Yeonjun is ashamed not to be there to protect him. <em>“Please? Yeonjunnie hyung, please? I’m begging—“</em></p><p>There’s a loud sound of the phone hitting the floor, and the line goes silent. Yeonjun quickly calls an ambulance, shouting at the cab driver to bring him there faster.</p><p>If Beomgyu dies and it’s because he doesn’t reach the place in time, everything will be for nothing.</p><p> </p><p>The ambulance is already at the house when he reached it. No one seems to be in the building upon a quick glance, not that he pays much attention as he is following the paramedics into the back of the ambulance. Soobin is getting first aid, but it doesn’t seem to do much with how much blood is staining the front of his chest.</p><p>The guy is barely conscious when Yeonjun gets next to him. “What happened? I know you’re in pain but Beomgyu isn’t here anymore. Did someone get him?” he urges, feeling bad for pressing someone who just get shot, but has no other way to obtain information.</p><p>The oxygen mask fogs over as Soobin tries to speak, which ends up in a wince. Eventually he gives up on mustering his strength to speak and reaches shakily to his pocket. It’s his phone.</p><p>“I should find him using this? GPS?”</p><p>They are already at the hospital and Soobin should be treated soon. The male quickly unlocks the phone with his fingerprint, throwing it at Yeonjun. It’s such an asshole move for him to let Soobin fight alone. But both of them have a shared priority: Beomgyu’s safety.</p><p>“Please survive, I don’t want to be slaughtered by your little friend,” he warns playfully, trying to lighten the mood even in such grim situation. Soobin offers him a tiny smile, just before his eyes are squeezed close in pain.</p><p>As the wounded guy is wheeled out of the ambulance and into the ER, Yeonjun uses his phone to track down Beomgyu’s location. He is still moving, probably in a car to wherever it is. He just hopes that he’s not too late by the time he reaches the blinking dot of where Beomgyu is supposed to be.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>A cold, hard tiles is what Beomgyu wakes up into.</p><p>He is lying down curled on his side, hands tied up behind his back. The floor is dirty, but that’s the least of his worries. Once his eyes adjusted to the glaring light from the ceiling, he can see the face of the man he loathed sitting on a chair in front of him.</p><p>“You’re finally up. I started to think that the dosage was too high for you.”</p><p>His chest still hurts from the impact of the shoot, but there’s no trace of blood. He must be shot with some kind of tranquilizer. His insides burned with rage again thinking of how they didn’t think to use the same gun for Soobin.</p><p>He can feel tears prickling his eyes as he thinks of what he saw just before he passed out.</p><p>Soobin was reaching for his hand, and he couldn’t even take it.</p><p>What if his last moment with Soobin was of their failed hand holding? At least if he’s killed now, he won’t have consciousness left in him to feel regrets.</p><p>“What do you want?” he asks coldly. “Why haven’t you killed me yet?”</p><p>“Oh no, why would I do that to my beloved nephew?” Jongho laughs, signing for his men to come over. “I just have a proposition to make.”</p><p>The man who shot him comes closer, snapping the wire used to tie up his wrists. He throws himself at the man just as he’s released, only to be easily caught by the back of his shirt and dragged to sit on the chair across of his uncle. That’s when he saw more people behind him, masked men just like the two he saw at the house. At this point, he really lost the confidence to escape without killing himself in the process.</p><p>With a gun pointed at him, he can only sit there, staring at the face of the middle aged man and imagining a thousand ways to kill him. “What the hell do you want? Just quickly get it over with.”</p><p>“I think you don’t understand the position you are in, Beomgyu. You’re in no place to demand things and have them granted, like the insolent brat you’ve been for your whole life.”</p><p>This feels so familiar for him, just like what he did to Yeonjun the night he almost got assassinated by the hitman. Only that this time he’s at the receiving end.</p><p>“I take it that you’re familiar with what’s written in your parents’ will.”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Bullshits. You’re getting most of the wealth, while the rest goes to either charity or that other brat. It’s so stupid of them, leaving the company in the care of a kid instead of his trusted brother. What are they thinking? This will ruin the company.”</p><p>“Technically you’re still in charge of it until I take over—“</p><p>“Why do you think they do that, huh? My brother must be influenced by that witch. She never liked me. But he should’ve still chosen his blood.”</p><p>“You were literally adopted.”</p><p>Perhaps it’s really no time to make snide remarks. He saw a glint of anger crossing Jongho’s face before the old man gets up and delivers a slap across his face. It’s loud in the vacant room, and Beomgyu lets his head stay turned to the side. Cheek stinging.</p><p>“Behave your mouth, young man. All I need is just a signature from you to hand over the company.”</p><p>There is some rustling of papers just before a stack was presented to him. It’s neatly arranged on top of a pad, complete with a pen. It doesn’t take a lot of reading for him to know what the letter on the very top is.</p><p>“It’s a suicide note.”</p><p>“A young, troubled kid who’s stressed at the sudden responsibility bestowed to him. He ended up taking his own life after making sure that his beloved uncle will take care of his problems. Isn’t it perfect?”</p><p>“You’re sick in the head. There’s no way I would sign that for you.”</p><p>His lips slowly turned up in a vile way, sending a chill down Beomgyu’s spines because of the promise held behind it. The promise of the bad things he can do to him.</p><p>“You will sign it before the day end. Mark my word.”</p><p>That’s the last thing he hears before his cheek meets the cold tiles again. It’s one of those days he prefers the darkness over the light, if it means that the pain would end.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>No matter how you look at it, the abandoned building looks like a place where illegal transactions take place. There are so little trees around the vicinity. The city lights look small from this distance, with a vacant road by the side of the building that doesn’t seem to be commonly used. A flickering street light is trying to stay alive by the side of the building</p><p>Yeonjun abandons ‘his’ motorbike a few meters away from the gate, just to make sure that no one is aware of his arrival to this place. The moment he sneaks past the corroded gate, he knows that he is walking into his doom.</p><p>Sure, he is good at sneaking into random buildings to kill his targets, but to save someone? He is not even hired to protect Choi Beomgyu. That person is now lying under knives on the operation room, and it’s up to Yeonjun whether Beomgyu will come out alive or not. If <em>he</em> will end up coming out of this building alive.</p><p>He can actually just sit there and wait for those people to end the young master’s life. That way he can be free of both contracts.</p><p>Yeonjun raised himself to be a professional contract killer, and he has no room for compassion. As he stares at the blinking light signalling Beomgyu’s position on Soobin’s phone, he wonders if this will be worth risking his life.</p><p>Then he hears it, the sound of a scream from behind the wall.</p><p>It’s followed by a crash, then muffled curses that are reduced into whimpers. So many things seem to happen inside the longer Yeonjun tries to decide if he should go batshit and storm in. One thing he knows is that he loathes the pathetic noises; they sound just like those that would wake him up in the middle of the night when Beomgyu is having one of his nightmare sessions. Now that it’s actually happening, Yeonjun can already picture the anguished face that Beomgyu is making.</p><p>He got pissed off last time at the thought of Sakura taking his assignment, thinking that he’s only annoyed because it’s his ex-girlfriend. Now, he realized that he doesn’t want <em>anyone</em> to take his prey. Choi Beomgyu is his from the very moment he accepted the assignment.</p><p>Fired up by the irritation, Yeonjun doesn’t have to think anymore.</p><p>His footsteps are silent as he makes a little run around the building. His stance lowered, avoiding any windows or lights that might alert the men inside of his presence. Even the sound of his breath is softened; something he learned when he was trained by his mentor. He is supposed to use this strategy to sneak on an opponent and kill them without any sound.</p><p>He applies it on the guard he sees near the back door of the building. With a single, soundless move, he tackles the man in all black clothing down to the floor, knocking him out, and tying his hands behind his back. Once he is sure there is no one else waiting to jump on him, he locates the electricity box, bringing his gun out to shoot it without any hesitance. Sparks of fire fly out from the box as lights flicker off around the compound. If he thought that it can’t go any darker here, he is totally wrong.</p><p>It's those few seconds of total silence and darkness that are crucial for this mission.</p><p>Thanks to his few minutes of contemplation outside in the darkness, his eyes have adjusted to seeing in the dark and he can navigate his ways inside just well. Not to alert the other men, he takes out the first man closest to the door as quietly as possible.</p><p>It’s failure right away, as the man drops to the floor with a loud groan and a gigantic thud. Fuck him and his huge body.</p><p>“Who is there?!”</p><p>“Fuck!” Yeonjun dives down to avoid the blind shooting towards him, he had tor run by ducking, willing his legs to go faster because he had not much time left until everyone’s eyes adjusted and they could spot him better.</p><p>A bullet barely missed his face as he whacks one of the men with a handle of his gun, then he welcomes more shoots towards him by holding the lifeless body as a shield. More bullets are lodged inside his ‘shield’, which could have been him if he wasn’t careful. Blood instantly splatters on his face. It’s gross, but that’s the least of his problem now.</p><p>Time’s up now. He locked eyes with the last man just as he throws the dead body towards him. Both of them go down with a yell and Yeonjun steps on his face to snuff out the light from his consciousness.</p><p>There’s a sickening crunch of nose breaking. A sadistic smile spreads over Yeonjun’s lips at that.</p><p>“Choi Beomgyu, please tell me that you’re still alive,” he calls out, no urgency in his voice as the men are all down. Adrenaline is still thrumming inside his veins, and slowly goes down only as he walks towards the blonde curled up on the floor.</p><p>His question is only responded by a whimper, but Beomgyu is alive and that’s what mattered.</p><p>His gaze softens from their former predatory state as he crouches down by the younger, a hand reaching out to touch, only to be swatted away. At least Beomgyu is showing a sign that he is still alive <em>and</em> able to fight. He just seems to be in shock and pain, judging from his battered clothes and blood. His lip is also torn and the healed bruise on his cheek is blooming back into its former shade.</p><p>Beomgyu looks so broken, but there’s only anger in his eyes.</p><p>Worse of all, it’s targeted to Yeonjun, whom he should be thankful to. Offended, he glares back at the boy.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Your job is not done.”</p><p>As if on cue, the moment Beomgyu said that, there’s a loud bang of gun shot. In reflex, Yeonjun falls onto his knee, acting as a shield for the defenceless guy and welcoming the burning pain on his arm. The pain shoots up to his brain, making him lightheaded for a split second.</p><p>It hurts like bitch.</p><p>He hasn’t been shot ever since he completed his first few assignment, so this just makes his anger boils up even more, especially as he saw the perpetrator. Of course it has to be Choi Jongho. The guy is still pointing the gun at them with shaky hands and absolutely terrified face. With the way he is handling the guy, he might accidentally shoot himself in the chin anytime soon.</p><p>But he shot Yeonjun, and the pain blinds him.</p><p>The next shot that Yeonjun releases hits him in the hand, making the gun flies out of his grip with an agonized wail. The next shot is aimed to his thigh, making the middle-aged man fall onto his knees with blood streaming down to the floor.</p><p>As the hitman slowly makes his way towards him, he ponders on the next location to make it hurt.</p><p>The wound on his arm is still stinging. His blood running down the length of his arm and lathering the gun before it drips down on the floor. But his face remains stoic as he keeps the weapon pointed at the now crying male.</p><p>“No, WAIT! Beomgyu wouldn’t want to kill me. I’m his uncle, remember? Get that gun away from me!”</p><p>Yeonjun would shoot this man in the face just for shooting him alone. This is not the matter of being hired to assassinate someone anymore. Still, he throws a look behind his shoulder towards Beomgyu, who already moved to sit. His eyes burning with hatred as he keeps them trained on his begging uncle.</p><p>“Beomgyu, is that true?” he asks, a lazy smile forming on his lips.</p><p>“Kill them all.”</p><p>Jongho’s face morphs into one of absolute horror, then the life is gone from his face as Yeonjun puts a bullet on his head. He falls down on the floor, lying in the pool of his own blood. He takes a few seconds to relish in the moment before he becomes alert again sensing movements from the other men he knocked out earlier.</p><p>“We better leave soon,” he hurries back to Beomgyu, trying to pull him up on his feet, only to be shoved away by his chest.</p><p>He wonders for a split moment if the boy is still in shock. It would be understandable if he doesn’t want anyone to touch him, especially not someone who had just committed a murder right before his face. But he feels Beomgyu’s hand reaching for his, squeezing it tight as he looks up at Yeonjun with a pair of cold eyes that drains all the warmth from the room.</p><p>“I said kill them all.”</p><p>“Beom—“he hesitates for a bit, glancing around the room to see the state of the men. They are defenceless, and it would bring shame for him as a hitman if he were to kill them this way. “It’s not like they can do anything.”</p><p>“You’re pitying them now? What about the innocent people you killed so far?” Beomgyu barks a laugh, tipping his head back. He looks like he is on the verge of hysteria or breaking down, and it’s scary that none of them can tell which one it is. “You’re my dog, right? So just, KILL ALL OF THEM!”</p><p>His voice is loud in the spacious dark room, even louder than the sound of gunshots as Yeonjun shoots the rest of the men in the room. Splashes of crimson red takes over the dirty floor, somehow duller in colour compared to the way Beomgyu’s eyes lit up in rage.</p><p>Yeonjun could never forget that look of pure anger and pain in that pair of gentle eyes.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. coming down (high on pain)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The whole thing feels like a fever dream.</p><p>One moment, Beomgyu is thrown around on the floor, with his hair pulled and face slammed onto the concrete floor, or a knife to his skin and papers on his face. The next thing he knows is that everyone is on the floor. Blood painting the dirty floor in dark red, now that he can see everything in the darkness of the place.</p><p>Yeonjun is not saying anything for a while, sitting on his motorbike and tending to his wound while Beomgyu goes around the building to pour gasoline all over it.</p><p>Ironically, he found the gasoline in his uncle’s car, along with the lighter. That man Choi Jongho was really planning his nephew’s death carefully, including to the part where he burns the body to ashes so there won’t be any sign of torture in his body. Thinking about it makes Beomgyu’s insides burn with another wave of anger.</p><p>He channels it into the fire, as he throws the lighter to the pool of gasoline he made on the floor and watched it set the building on fire.</p><p>“You’re really mad, huh?” Yeonjun’s voice comes from his side, and he only realizes now that the guy is already standing next to him.</p><p>Yeonjun had torn the lower bit of his shirt to tie it around his arm and stop the blood. A part of his toned abdomen is exposed, barely covered by the leather jacket which serves no purpose other than for his fashion.</p><p>“If you’d seen what they did to me, you’d be too,” Beomgyu says. His whole body still aches from taking the countless beatings. He thought he wouldn’t have made it out alive. Yeonjun is the last person he’d expect to turn up at that dark room. </p><p>But he also knows that if he died back there, Yeonjun wouldn’t earn his money from any side of the deal. That’s a good reason to save him.</p><p>“Let’s go before your fire alerts anyone else,” he finally says once the fire starts getting bigger, engulfing the abandoned building in big light of orange and red. This will gather attention even from far away.</p><p>When the elder turns around to go, Beomgyu reaches out to take a hold on the hem of his leather jacket, halting his step. He walks closer to rest his forehead against the back of Yeonjun’s shoulder, exhaling a deep sigh.</p><p>“Thank you for saving my life.”</p><p>Yeonjun only nods at that, taking his arm so they can run for his motorbike once they heard movements from the roads. They leave the abandoned compound that way. Yeonjun riding the motorbike with Beomgyu perched on the back seat, clutching around his waist and hiding his face against the uncomfortable fabric of his jacket.</p><p>If he had cried a little during the ride, he would never admit that, and Yeonjun never mentioned anything about it.</p><p> </p><p>Their destination is an apartment complex. As Beomgyu is ushered into the lobby, it just hits him that he is not supposed to be anywhere but the hospital. The fog is starting to disappear from his head along with the shock that dissipates from his body. From this moment onward, all he can think about is Soobin, and how Soobin’s blood is still staining his shirt.</p><p>“Yeonjun. I’m not kidding. I need to go to the hospital!” he yells for the nth time, which is ignored as the hitman pulls him through the empty corridor.</p><p>They only stop before a door, and he tries his best to twist his arm out of the tight grip on his wrist as Yeonjun punches the code into his keypad. He is pushed into the apartment room before he can say anything else.</p><p>“CHOI YEONJUN!” he screams, earning a glare that makes him flinch when Yeonjun turns around to face him. Their eyes are locked in a battle of glare, before he finally speaks again. His voice comes out shakier than he’d like to hear. “Please… Soobin is alone there. I don’t even know his condition. How can I sit around here when he’s suffering because of me? I know you understand me. Yeonjun hyung—”</p><p>“I need you to sit down there for five minutes and see if you’re going to succumb into a killing spree or scream out of pain. If you are okay after five minutes, I’ll take you there.”</p><p>It’s nonsense. Even five minutes could make him regret for the rest for not going to see his best friend right away. But there is a stern finality in Yeonjun’s voice, and Beomgyu doesn’t think he can fight the hitman even with a bullet wound in his arm. So, he has no choice but to oblige.</p><p>He flips the guy off before turning around, heaving himself down onto the couch much like a sulky toddler.</p><p>“Good boy, don’t go anywhere,” Yeonjun says.</p><p>The male disappears somewhere into the apartment for a bit while Beomgyu is watching the arrow of the clock intently. When he comes back, he notices that the leather jacket is gone, displaying Yeonjun’s bloody arm and the barely covered wound. The blood has stopped with the presence of that makeshift tourniquet, but even Beomgyu knows that this cannot be the solution.</p><p>“We really should go to the hospital. You need help with that wound.”</p><p>Yeonjun scoffs. “Do you think I can just walk in and make them treat me? They are going to ask a lot of questions.”</p><p>He got a point, so Beomgyu just sits there in silence as he watches the elder sit on the other couch, wiping down blood from his arm with a damp towel. Time cannot go any slower as he wills it to, and with each time he spends on silence, the more he realizes that exhaustion starts taking over his body. Without any anger and adrenaline in his blood, he can access the control to other feelings.</p><p>Other than the exhaustion and relief, there are also darker emotions floating to the surface. He is mad at Yeonjun for making him sit down and wait, while also grateful because the guy literally saved his life. There’s also a tiny bit of triumph over watching his uncle died back then. The most prominent one, however, is pain. Both physical and mental.</p><p>Five minutes must have passed already because he notices Yeonjun’s stare at him. Then he notices the wetness in his cheeks. He is crying without even realizing.</p><p>“What’s happening…” he mumbles, lifting his hands to rub the tears from his eyes only to realize that they are shaking.</p><p>They are not covered in blood anymore, yet in his vision, he can only see his blood-stained hands that took that gun. He can still see bullet hitting the man on his neck before he collapses. All with his shaky hands.</p><p>When he lifts his gaze, he noticed that Yeonjun is kneeling in front of him, taking his hands in his own. “Breathe. You’re not in there anymore. No one can hurt you anymore.”</p><p>Beomgyu shakes his head stubbornly, snatching his hands away from the comforting hold. Yeonjun’s hands are not supposed to be comforting. It would be better if Yeonjun puts him at gun point and tell him mean things like he would in some of Beomgyu’s dreams. He deserves it.</p><p>“I—I killed someone,” he says, a sob crawling up his throat. It feels more real now that he said it. “That person shot Soobin so I didn’t think—just took the gun and shot him. I saw him dead, but that won’t change anything, right? Even if I killed him, it wouldn’t bring back… oh god, Soobin is not dead, is he?”</p><p>Now he’s crying for a whole different reason. His chest feels tight and constricted, and it’s getting harder to breathe with the walls closing in on him. Why is this apartment so small when Yeonjun is rich? Why won’t Yeonjun give him some space?</p><p>“No, no. He’s not dead,” Yeonjun cups his face with his warm hands, trying to brush his tears away even though it’s futile as new one keeps on streaming down his cheeks. “He will be okay, alright? Now you have to be okay for him, too.”</p><p>“How would you know that? You’re not there with him!” he yells, slapping Yeonjun’s hands away again. “There’s nothing I can do here other than being pathetic!”</p><p>Yeonjun looks pissed now. He gets up on his feet again, towering over Beomgyu now, and runs his fingers through his hair with an exasperated sigh. “Yes, you’re just being pathetic now. Do you think you can help even if you go there?”</p><p>“What—“Beomgyu blinks a few times, too taken aback by the rise of volume to remember why he’s crying.</p><p>“I went all the way to save your life and kill all those guys for you, now you want me to drive you to the hospital, while you know that I’m also in pain?” he keeps going, gesturing at the bloody fabric tied around his upper arm. “Who do you think I am? You think you’re so much better than me that you own my whole life? Fun fact, you are not. Your life sucks and you just keep relying on people to fix it for you, but guess what? It doesn’t work that way!”</p><p>Beomgyu stares at him with his eyes wide, filled with unshed tears. Even though he wants to shout back at him, he knows that everything he said is true. He can’t do anything if he goes to the hospital now, he will just be there and cry while other people do the work. Even before this, he had always relied on Soobin, and even Yeonjun, who lets him call him <em>hyung</em>. All his life, he’s just been using people and cry when it doesn’t go his way.</p><p>“Yeonjun…” he calls, trying to come up with something. Anything to make it better. The guy lifts his hand to stop him from saying more. He just looks tired instead of angry now.</p><p>“Don’t even try.”</p><p>Then he leaves the living room, leaving Beomgyu in silence again, alone with his thoughts.</p><p>For a few moments, he can only hear the sound of his own sob, until his breathing starts evening up and he can breathe normally again. His eyes have dried out, just irritated by constant rubbing of his fists. Now that he’s calmed down, all that left is the ache all over his body from the beating he took. He can take it.</p><p>Another thing that bothers him is the guilt that starts eating him up. He bites down on his lip as he recalls what Yeonjun said, and how much it must’ve hurt him because Beomgyu is taking advantage of him. Their relationship is not even at the level of friends, since he only paid the guy to kill people for him.</p><p>Yeonjun still tried to comfort him, and he was so rude about it.</p><p>Rubbing his eyes for the last time, Beomgyu finally gets up from the couch. He walks further into the place, quietly and carefully, as he takes in the interior of the place. It’s the first time he pays attention to it as he threw a tantrum right as he entered.</p><p>The apartment feels so empty, with just bare minimum of furniture and no decorations. It must be lonely for Yeonjun to live alone in such an empty place, but maybe he doesn’t get to stay home for a lot of nights.</p><p>After passing a bathroom, Beomgyu finds the kitchen where Yeonjun is. He nibbles on his lower lip again, wincing now that he remembers that he busted his lip earlier. The sound of his pained hiss seems to alert Yeonjun of his presence.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” he says quickly before he can chicken out. “You’re right. I’m selfish and useless. I shouldn’t have ordered you around like that.”</p><p>A thank you and an apology in a span of few hours. Never had he expected this would happen one day.</p><p>“I see that you have calmed down,” Yeonjun turns around, a cup of tea on his hand. He is leaning his lower back against the edge of the counter, beckoning Beomgyu to come closer.</p><p>“That’s right. But I’m still thinking… about Soobin.”</p><p>“Understandable.”</p><p>“I can’t breathe without knowing that he’s well… really,” he takes a deep breath, swallowing back the urge to cry because he can’t break down once again in front of the guy. “I don’t know what I’d do without him.”</p><p>Yeonjun sighs. “I just needed you to calm down first before we go to the hospital, okay? Can you do that for me?”</p><p>That makes Beomgyu perk up, nodding quickly.</p><p>“Good boy,” Yeonjun smiles, offering the cup of tea to him. “Now drink this to help your body calm down, then I’ll call a cab for you to go to Soobin.”</p><p>Without questioning any further, he grabs the cup from the male, taking the spot next to him while he sips down the warm drink. The tea is sure comforting. It instantly warms him up, and calms his nerves a little. He really needed this if he’s going to stay up the night at the hospital.</p><p>“Wait, what are you going to do with your arm?” he asks, looking up at Yeonjun for a bit, but going back to drinking right away since there’s only a little left on his cup. Yeonjun is staring down at him, probably making sure that he finishes the caffeine.</p><p>“It’s a little complicated. Usually we’ll have this doctor from the agency to tend our wounds when we need it so it won’t raise suspicion, but it’s harder now since I can’t just tell them I got this while saving my target…”</p><p>Suddenly Yeonjun’s voice sounds so soft. Something akin to lullaby. It’s so comforting that Beomgyu is about to hire him to sing him to sleep every night. Maybe he won’t get nightmares that way.</p><p>“—so I think I’ll just call a friend. Beomgyu, are you ok?”</p><p>He looks up at Yeonjun. “Of course. I’m ready to go now. See? I finished the drink. Let’s go!”</p><p>Despite trying to sound all cheerful and energized, Beomgyu can feel the exhaustion from earlier closing in on him again. His eyelids feel heavy, just like the rest of his body. He mildly realizes that the cup is gone from his hands. Did he drop it? It’d be a shame. It’s a cute mint coloured mug with a picture of fish on its side. Yeonjun would be mad at him.</p><p>But he couldn’t care less about it. Or not at all. He is floating away.</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>Yeonjun’s arm still hurts. It stings even more as he hauls the unconscious body over his good shoulder and carries him to his bedroom. There is no way he would send Choi Beomgyu to go alone to the hospital after barely escaping his death, so this is the only way, and he should treat the gunshot wound to prepare himself for a very angry little guy tomorrow.</p><p>The bed is still unmade, but the rest of the room is clean. It’s just to be expected as he doesn’t spend a lot of nights sleeping on this bed, not since he started getting more jobs from the agency. The caretaker probably spends more time in this place than he does, having come here once a week to clean up his mess.</p><p>After setting Beomgyu down on the bed and pulling the grey blanket over his frame, he sits on the edge of the bed, taking his time staring at the guy.</p><p>This is the messiest state he’s ever seen Beomgyu in. There’s a bleeding cut on his lower lip and a blooming bruise under his right eye, accompanied by swollen eyes from crying. He also noticed the limp as Beomgyu walked earlier.</p><p>Just what has Choi Jongho did to his nephew?</p><p>Worst of all, Beomgyu already knew that he’d end up like that, being betrayed by his closest family. It’s not long ago that he lost his parents and he’s all alone, with too much money that come with extra responsibilities he didn’t ask for.</p><p>It’s just at this moment that Yeonjun realizes he had forgotten all about saving his own life and the extra payment he’d get from Beomgyu after all of this ended. He acted all on his own volition, probably influenced by empathy.</p><p>Choi Yeonjun, having empathy towards someone who he’s supposed to kill? It’s unheard of, and it would tarnish his career as a professional hitman. But he also knows that he can’t let Beomgyu suffer alone. He reminds Yeonjun of himself when he came out of juvie, how lonely and helpless he was until he finally found someone to lean on. A family.</p><p>The family he is betraying now.</p><p>“Just what have you done to me?” he sighs, reaching out to run his fingers through Beomgyu’s messy locks, messing it up some more with a soft smile that he doesn’t know forming on his lips. “Why are you so hard to kill?”</p><p>Beomgyu frowns in his supposedly deep sleep, exhaling in a soft whine that makes Yeonjun snap out of it and take his hand away. He clears his throat, getting up from the bed and pacing around awkwardly as if he had to explain himself to a sleeping guy. Thankfully, the doorbell rings at the right moment.</p><p>He turns off the light to his bedroom and making his way to the front door to check if it’s the person he is waiting for. As he opens the door, Kang Taehyun is standing there. A bag slung over his shoulder and a very unimpressed look on his face. It doesn’t budge even as he’s pulled inside by the other hitman.</p><p>“Don’t you know that I have extra trainings on weekend? This better be urgent.”</p><p>Fortunately, there is no more complaints once Taehyun takes a look at the bloody makeshift bandage around Yeonjun’s arm. He sighs. “What did you do this time?”</p><p>Yeonjun should be offended that the younger automatically thinks it’s his fault that he ends up this way, yet it’s proven to be impossible as he is too busy trying not to pass out at the sight of his own blood. He is sitting on the floor of his living room, his shirt discarded aside, and his head tipped back to rest on the edge of his sofa.</p><p>“You’re lucky there’s an exit wound, or else I’ll have to drag your ass to the hospital to get this fixed.”</p><p>“Can’t you like, gouge the bullet out?” he asks, wincing at his own suggestion because it just caused the image to pop out in his head. “Okay bad idea.”</p><p>“Obviously not. Don’t ever try,” Taehyun rolls his eyes.</p><p>The room falls into silence as Taehyun is focusing on treating the wound. Yeonjun doesn’t even want to see it, only taking his lower lip between his teeth whenever he feels something poking him, even though the pain is already dulled now after the painkillers he took.</p><p>“Remember the last time this happened. I had to calm you down instead, but now your hands are so steady and you know what you’re doing,” Yeonjun says, mostly to distract himself. He steals a glance towards the latter, noticing the firmness on his jaw.</p><p>“Technically it was your fault, getting on the way of my shot just because you wanted to take credits for killing that woman.”</p><p>“That was the last case you ever took. I never got to ask you, but,” he takes a deep breath, turning his head to face Taehyun properly now. “Is it because of me?”</p><p> </p><p>(There were a lot of running in the mission. It was not like Yeonjun’s target was a very athletic person. She was just a higher up in this start-up business, and when she ran, she wouldn’t get so far with her high heeled feet and tight skirt restricting her legs movement.</p><p>The real reason he ran was the presence of another rookie in the mission.</p><p>It’s common in the agency that two rookies would be assigned in a same mission to prove their worth, and most times, it ended up badly. Still, those who came out of it unscathed would climb up the rank quickly, catching the eyes of the higher ups in the agency for their capability to kill ‘under pressure’.</p><p>That night’s mission was awfully full of tension, especially because both Yeonjun and Taehyun were infamous for their competitiveness.</p><p>They reached the woman’s office almost at a same time. It should’ve been a clean kill because the rest of the employees were already home aside from their target, and they had passed the guards downstairs without any commotion. Taehyun would get that clean kill which marked his achievement, if only Yeonjun didn’t get on his way, throwing himself between the gun and their target.</p><p>The bullet sunk into his shoulder blade, blinding him with an immense pain.</p><p>It was dangerous for the mission because the element of surprise had dissipated and the woman was alert, on her way to call for help. Yeonjun put a bullet in her head.</p><p>That was a moment of painful triumph. Even as Yeonjun was slumped onto the floor, he could still throw a victory smile at Taehyun who still stood there stunned by the whole thing. A look of horror in his eyes and a tremble on his hand.</p><p>It was the last time they saw each other.)</p><p> </p><p>So it’s not Yeonjun’s fault for wondering that way.</p><p>Taehyun stays silent for a bit, brows furrowed as he smooths over the square bandage he pasted over the gaping wound. “You’re giving yourself too much credits.”</p><p>“Am I wrong, though? You disappeared just like that.”</p><p>“I did not. I sent the resignation letter and everything. Not my fault that they didn’t want to accept it.”</p><p>“And joining our rival agency? They’re calling you a traitor.”</p><p>“Maybe I am,” Taehyun says. His movement is faster now as he wraps the bandage around Yeonjun’s arm, even tugging a little too hard and making Yeonjun wince. “’Cause I don’t want to kill anymore, maybe in that way, I’m betraying my people.”</p><p>“What made you realize that?”</p><p>Taehyun glares at him, reminding him of his place as a non-friend, and as someone who he suspected to be targeting his life. After what seems like a moment of contemplation, Taehyun ends up speaking.</p><p>“That day, we were in this same position as we waited for the medic team. Each minute passed, I spent it praying that you would survive instead of wishing you’re dead so I wouldn’t be punished,” Taehyun says, finally satisfied with his work and withdraws his hands. Only now he’s looking at Yeonjun again “That’s when I knew I didn’t have what it takes to be a hitman.”</p><p>“What, being cold-blooded?” Yeonjun laughs.</p><p>“In this line of job, we have to kill people in order to survive, even if that person is someone we care about,” the way Taehyun looks at him makes the ache comes back to Yeonjun’s body, but it’s in his chest instead of his wounded arm. “I could never do that.”</p><p>After their abrupt farewell that night a few months ago, Yeonjun had been wondering why Taehyun would quit the agency. The guy was trained in the facility since he was a kid, so he had been there way longer than Yeonjun was. His loyalty lied with the agency and its people. The next thing he remembered hearing was about Taehyun joining another agency, but in the medical help team instead. He remembered scoffing at the guy’s poor choice and the waste of talent.</p><p>Now, it all makes sense, and Yeonjun finds it impossible to hate him.</p><p>“You loved me that much, huh?” Yeonjun smiles, lifting his hand to give Taehyun a pat on the head, which is swatted away easily.</p><p>“You wish.”</p><p>Taehyun stuffs his tools back into the bag, ready to leave as quickly as he came. Yeonjun only watches him for a bit, until he stands up and ready to leave the place. He reaches out to tug the bottom of Taehyun’s pants, earning a frown from the younger.</p><p>“Can I ask for another favour?”</p><p>“You’re really looking to owe me a lot of things, aren’t you?” Taehyun scoffs, but there’s no sign or disdain, or a kick to his hand. It’s never in their principles to do things for free, so Yeonjun knows there would be a day where he will pay for this. But it will be worth the risk.</p><p>“Soobin is at the hospital—“</p><p>“He’s where?”</p><p>“He got shot.”</p><p>“WHAT?”</p><p>Yeonjun shushes him, a finger over his lips since he’s being too loud. Taehyun’s eyes bulged out as if he really cares. Maybe he does.</p><p>“I’ll text you the address of the hospital, okay? But it’d be nice to have someone familiar around him when he wakes up,” he explains, already grabbing his phone for that purpose. He expects the guy to storm out of his apartment right away, but he is still standing in the middle of his living room, staring at him.</p><p>“Beomgyu is not with him?”</p><p>“He is… not available right now.”</p><p>There’s no way he can tell the guy that Beomgyu is currently resting on his bed in his drug-induced sleep. There will be a lot of questions, those that Yeonjun can’t answer without exposing himself.</p><p>“You really owe me a lot, Choi Yeonjun.”</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>This morning, Yeonjun wakes up to the feeling of fingers around his throat and an extra weight pinning him down.</p><p>He should be alarmed, even in this state where his brain might as well turn into fluid from fatigue and lack of sleep. It might be someone from the agency finding out that he’s been killing his friends and teaming up with the enemy. Yet he doesn’t feel any of that, just comfort as he caught a whiff of a scent akin to baby powder. Something he connects with the presence of Choi Beomgyu.</p><p>“You have five seconds to explain why I’m not at the hospital right now.”</p><p>Beomgyu really tries to sound threatening, but it just sounds like his normal voice now that Yeonjun is accustomed to how the guy often mimics TV characters when he is watching them. It’s even harder to take him seriously once he opens his eyes to Beomgyu sitting on top of his stomach, thighs on either sides of his waist. He just looks small instead of intimidating.</p><p>“You fell asleep. How is that my fault?” he groans, voice still deep from sleep.</p><p>“No way! I was drinking the tea that <em>you</em> made, and then I woke up on a bed!”</p><p>“That’s cause you fell asleep right away.”</p><p>Beomgyu squints at him. “Did you drug me? You have to tell the truth or I will choke you.”</p><p>“What if I did?” Yeonjun is still unfazed by the threat, smiling lazily as he stares up at the blonde. “You can’t kill me anyway.”</p><p>“You’re underestimating me. I killed one guy already, I can kill more.”</p><p>Even as he is trying to be all scary by saying that, he’s not fooling anyone. Yeonjun can see a flash of pain crossing his eyes as the words slipped out of his mouth, poorly hidden by the anger he still holds for Yeonjun over his suspicion.</p><p>Sighing, Yeonjun pushes himself up to sit down, making the younger yelp as he’s almost thrown backwards. The hold around his neck is freed as Beomgyu grabs the head of the couch instead to steady himself. It’s not necessary as Yeonjun is already holding around his waist in a secure hold.</p><p>“Didn’t I tell you that it wasn’t your fault?”</p><p>“It is. Why won’t you let me take credits for the kill?” he scowls. A faint pink dusting over his cheeks, making him look more like a sulky kitten despite talking about deaths. Yeonjun can’t help but to grin at that, cupping Beomgyu’s chin and squeezing his cheeks gently.</p><p>“’Cause if you’re that skilled, I might have to scout you into the agency,” he says. His smirk grows at the spreading warmth under his fingers, radiating from Beomgyu’s cheek. “And you’re too cute for that shithole.”</p><p>That earns him a full-hand slap over his face. Beomgyu hops off his lap easily. “You’re impossible.”</p><p>“Says you, but you’re the one who stole my clothes.”</p><p>He’d think that Beomgyu would rush him straight to the hospital once he woke up, but Beomgyu seems more relaxed now. He even showered, judging from the dampness on his hair. He is wearing an oversized hoodie and a pair of jeans that somehow fits him. Luckily it’s not one his spare leather jacket, because Yeonjun can’t afford to lose another one after last night.</p><p>“I ate your ramyeon, by the way. You slept like a baby.”</p><p>So he’s really making himself at home at Yeonjun’s apartment.</p><p>Sighing, Yeonjun gets up from the couch, ruffling his own hair with his healthy hand. “Let me shower and then we can go to the hospital.”</p><p>Beomgyu slides down to sit on the couch that he occupied just now, hugging a pillow to his chest and nibbling his lower lip. The bad habit only makes him wince because of the little wound he still had untreated.</p><p>“Do you think we can see him already? He is okay, right?”</p><p>“Well, there’s no bad news, so he should be okay.”</p><p>A pillow is thrown to Yeonjun’s direction as he leaves for the bathroom.</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>Soobin, in fact, is not available for Beomgyu to see.</p><p>When Yeonjun walks into his private room, he expects the tall guy to be asking for Beomgyu. Taehyun is nowhere in sight, so he is left to sit in awkward silence. He even thought that it might have been better if Soobin is still asleep from his anaesthesia.</p><p>Much to his surprise, he is the one who speaks first.</p><p>“Please tell me that Beomgyu is alright,” he glares at Yeonjun, probably not expecting him to turn up alone.</p><p>“He is. Just a few bruises and cuts—“Soobin looks alarmed at this information, it makes Yeonjun cackle. “Getting checked now for safety measures, it shouldn’t be a big deal.”</p><p>Seeing that Soobin is still staring at him curiously, Yeonjun drags a chair closer to sit on his bedside. This is the longest he’s been in a same room with Soobin without them throwing snappy remarks at each other. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he is connected to IVs in his bedridden state.</p><p>Instead of relief, his face only darkens some more once he’s all caught up on what happened the night before. He tips his head backwards on the pile of his pillows, exhaling a heavy sigh.</p><p>“Choi Yeonjun, can you do me a favour?”</p><p>“I find it hard to say no when you’re this weak,” he says, earning a weak grin from the latter. “Okay, spill.”</p><p>“Don’t let Beomgyu see me. Not yet.”</p><p>Now, that’s a weird request. He’d think as the bodyguard, Soobin would want to check on Beomgyu first. And especially as best friends, he’d want Beomgyu to sit here instead of Yeonjun. Now, Yeonjun can’t figure out how to hold Beomgyu back when he’s been bugging him to see his best friend.</p><p>“And why should I do that?” he ends up asking.</p><p>“I just don’t feel like I deserve to see him right now. You see, I vowed to protect him with my own life, yet he was the one who saved me, worrying about me,” he laughs softly. Pain glazing over his eyes before he brings a hand up to cover them. “I don’t want him to see me like this.”</p><p>“You know it’s not your fault. You protected him and got hurt. There was nothing more you could do.”</p><p>Yeonjun is sick of himself now. How did he go from trying to kill these two high schoolers into counselling them? Their mental state is not for him to care about. All he needed to do was to make sure they ended up dead, yet he is trapped here with a role as their friend. How sickening.</p><p>Still, he can’t ignore that look in Soobin’s eyes. He prefers to have the tall guy cursing and bickering with him instead.</p><p>“I could’ve done better, especially since we expected that Jongho would pull that kind of thing sooner or later, but we’re slacking because we’re relying so much on you,” he sighs, looking straight into Yeonjun’s eyes now that his hand is not blocking them anymore. “I was wrong about you. Thank you, Choi Yeonjun.”</p><p>He rubs the back of his nape at Soobin’s words. “Don’t start acting nice to me now. I’m technically still hired to kill both of you.”</p><p>“Can we agree on a ceasefire until I’m released from this bed, though?”</p><p>“I’ll consider,” Yeonjun laughs. “And I’ll do you a favour just this once.”</p><p>Soobin nods, mouthing a ‘thank you’ at him before shutting his eyes, seemingly tired out from the conversation. Yeonjun can’t blame him. It must be so much to take, especially after the shock of almost losing his best friend.</p><p>That’s why when Beomgyu finished his check-up and ended up in the room, Yeonjun quickly gets up from his chair to usher him back outside, ignoring his angry whispers.</p><p>“The nurse said that Soobin can’t have many visitors yet. Besides, he’s sleeping.”</p><p>Beomgyu frowns, trying to look over his shoulder. “Can’t I just sit there?”</p><p>“The nurse said no.”</p><p>“You literally just—“</p><p>“She gave 5 minutes for me and the time’s up. Let’s just get some food until Taehyun comes back!”</p><p>“Taehyun? Why would he be here?”</p><p>“Don’t you think Soobin would want to see him more than you?”</p><p>Beomgyu bites his lip, looking like he might confront him for a second before finally sigh in dejection. He pouts and tugs onto Yeonjun’s sleeve instead. “Okay then. We’ll come back here after Tae leaves.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. the end (of my breath)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Funerals are the most pretentious ever created in the universe.</p><p>For this one, maybe Beomgyu actually enjoys it a little, as he is the one who has to pretend to be sad.</p><p>Choi Jongho is died because of fire. No one mentioned the bullets found in that warehouse, or the very fact that he was at that shady warehouse in the middle of nowhere. No mentions of murder and other people that were found along with his burned corpse. Whoever covered this up; they must be very good at this. And they know that the old man’s death must have something to do with Beomgyu.</p><p>If they are at the funeral, they didn’t give any hint of that. Even the auntie and Chaeyeon who are fully aware of what happened in the house that night.</p><p>“Thank you for coming.”</p><p>“Deepest condolences. Uncle was a very good man and a valuable asset to the company. I can’t thank him enough for that,” Beomgyu says as he kneels before them to deliver his condolences. The words make him want to throw up.</p><p>They are not lifting their heads the whole time he is up there, but he can feel the look of hatred thrown at him when he gets up to go. It just reminds him that the two are accomplices of the man’s plan of killing his own nephew in cold blood. A man being rotten in character is unavoidable, but to have the whole family agreeing on a murder? Outrageous.</p><p>His footsteps feel lighter as he walks out from the gloomy room of the funeral center, erasing the fake sympathy from his visage. It’s replaced by a bright smile as he caught Yeonjun at the end of the corridor, quickly making a little run towards him.</p><p>“You should’ve seen my acting in there. Probably would get me cast in some drama series!” he chirps, only to squeeze his eyes shut when Yeonjun’s hand comes closer to his face. He feels a light flick on his forehead that causes him to glare at the laughing male. “What was that for?”</p><p>“Making me dress up and wait here. I could’ve gone in there and paid my respect too.”</p><p>“Yeah? Not sure if he’d want respect from someone who kill—“</p><p>His words are interrupted as Yeonjun’s hand drops to clamp over his lips instead. He blinks up at him, questioning.</p><p>“You want to announce that here? In his own funeral?”</p><p>He smiles at that, licking Yeonjun’s palm before turning around to leave, ignoring the grossed out curses spilled from the latter. It feels better for him once he stepped out from the building. After all, it’s the same place as the one where he mourns his parents’ death just weeks ago. It’s filled with the same faces that came the other day, and the same set of words repeated like a broken radio.</p><p>“So, now what?” Yeonjun asks once he caught up to him, standing next to him as they wait for the car to pull up by the lobby. “It’s the end.”</p><p>“I already authorized the fee for your payment, so it should be transferred to your account anytime soon,” he nods, satisfied at his quick work. He hums to himself to fill the silence that comes after that, only to stop when he feels a burning stare from his side. He caught Yeonjun’s eyes on him when he turns his gaze, giving him a look of confusion that makes him speak up.</p><p>“That’s it?”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You basically just defeated the last boss and the only thing you did was transferring money?” Yeonjun frowns, resting his hands on his hips as if that would look intimidating. “You’re supposed to be jumping around in joy or something. Make it age appropriate.”</p><p>“Why would I jump in joy <em>here</em>? You’re so weird,” he scoffs, folding his arms across his chest to return the similarly disapproving stance.</p><p>“Fine, what do you want to do now if you could celebrate?”</p><p>“I just want to be in Soobin’s hospital room, tell him everything that happened and make sure he’s really okay after that… night,” he bites his lip at the flashback of that particular scene of Soobin falling to the floor.</p><p>This is the longest he has ever been without Choi Soobin by his side. Every time he pays a visit, the nurse would say that he is unavailable, or that they are not allowed in. When he actually was allowed in once, Soobin was fast asleep. It pisses him off to know that Taehyun got several successful visits already and he never bothered to call him over.</p><p>“Maybe we can go?”</p><p>“Taehyun said he’s asleep.”</p><p>Yeonjun sighs, looking like he felt bad for Beomgyu for once. It makes him want to punch the elder, but the timing is not right as a familiar car stops right before them.</p><p>“Let’s still go anyway!” the guy says before knocking on the driver seat’s window.</p><p>Beomgyu can only watch in confusion as Yeonjun said something to his driver, which ends up in the driver stepping out from the seat. It confuses him even more when the hitman replaces him on the driver seat, grinning cockily at him as he holds the wheel with one hand.</p><p>“I’ll take you for a ride.”</p><p> </p><p>The ride turns out to be longer than Beomgyu expected.</p><p>He despises the feeling of not having a clue on something, so he has to be wary the whole time even as he fights the driver for a song that they’re playing during the ride. Just to make him stop whining, Yeonjun has to comply to his demand to stop at a McDonald’s drive thru and a department store where he bought more snacks.</p><p>When Yeonjun adds a pack of firecrackers to the pile, Beomgyu starts having an idea on what their destination could be.</p><p>“You’re really taking me this far? Maybe I should be suspicious of your intention,” he comments, despite his eyes are already sparkling from catching a sight of the sea at the last highway they go through. “What if you took another case with me as your target? Now that you’ve gained my trust, it’d be easier to kill me and make it look like an accident.”</p><p>“So I’ve gained your trust, huh?”</p><p>Thankfully, Yeonjun is focusing on the road and not looking at him, so he won’t see the flustered look on Beomgyu’s face as he throws a fry at him. His laughter is even more irritating, making the blonde stuff more fries into his mouth as he watches the road.</p><p>For a few moments, only the soft tune of indie pop song fills the car. Beomgyu is busy preventing himself from speaking by eating more fries and Yeonjun probably wills himself to stop bothering him. Eventually, he sets the bag of fries back on the backseat, staring off at the yellowing sky.</p><p>“It’s bad, isn’t it? For me to trust you.”</p><p>“It is, actually.”</p><p>“Even if you saved my life?”</p><p>“You can never trust a killer, Beomgyu.”</p><p>“But why do I want to trust you even more when you say that?”</p><p>Yeonjun is the one who falls into silence now, but it doesn’t matter much as they have reached their stop. The road is turning into a sandier path when the car turns into a certain area. It’s parked far from the best spot where many people are gathering, but it’s better this way.</p><p>The wind blows over his hair as soon as he steps out from the passenger seat. The black suit already thrown somewhere in the backseat with the rest of his snacks, leaving him in a white dress shirt and a loosened tie. It’s not an appropriate outfit for a visit to the beach, but it doesn’t stop him from making an excited run over the sand.</p><p>“You’re such a kid,” Yeonjun says when he caught up to him.</p><p>“If I were that much of a kid, I’d be throwing you into the water now, but I’m looking into the sunset just like a normal adult would,” he replies, focusing on taking a picture with his phone. The sun has mostly set already, casting a beautiful orange right atop the water, and eventually it’s all engulfed.</p><p>“I’m a normal adult, but I don’t take pictures.”</p><p>“You’re definitely far from the definition of normal,” Beomgyu deadpans. “Or adult.”</p><p>“Says the actual kid between us.”</p><p>He squints at the remark, only catching the side of Yeonjun’s face as the guy is still staring at the sea. To get his attention, Beomgyu kicks some sand towards him.</p><p>“What the fuck—“ Yeonjun jumps away after the impact, groaning as he checks the condition of his shoes. “The sand got in my shoes!”</p><p>“Deserved!” Beomgyu laughs, taking slow steps backwards so he can still watch Yeonjun’s face of discomfort. He only turns around to run properly when Yeonjun retaliates, kicking a storm of sand towards him. A bit even ends up in his mouth as he opens his mouth to speak. “Hey! That’s unfair—stop it! Choi Yeonjun!”</p><p>Despite their discussion a moment ago about not being kids, they are actually acting like a pair of kids here. The kicking becomes more intense. Beomgyu can actually feel some rough texture of the sand inside his shirt after the last kick. More, and he’d have to find an available shower around here.</p><p>“Stop! I give up!” he yells, lifting his hands out to the latter who’s ready to kick again.</p><p>One thing he learned from being around Yeonjun is that the male is highly competitive and he won’t back up from any challenge of game. So it’s just a given that he’s the one who had to announce ceasefire.</p><p>“Are you finally acknowledging the fact that I’m superior? Huh? HUH?”</p><p>God. He’s so annoying.</p><p>Beomgyu makes a round for the higher ground, throwing himself to sit on the sand as he watches Yeonjun running towards him. He tries to catch his breath during that period, brushing some sand from the folds of his shirt. He only looks at the hitman again once he feels a presence next to him.</p><p>“Have anyone ever told you that you’re brave for a high schooler?” Yeonjun asks as he sits next to him, dusting his black pants from any white speck of sand. “Picking a fight with someone who has a gun under his suit jacket.”</p><p>Now, that’s unexpected. Beomgyu has been wondering why the latter is not taking off the black suit like he did as soon as they take off from the funeral.</p><p>“Seriously?” He pats around Yeonjun’s chest, only to frown at the rectangular box that falls from behind it. Yeonjun laughs seeing his incredulous face, ignoring the scowl thrown at him as he picks up the box of firecrackers that he got earlier.</p><p>As the sky darkens and more people are leaving the beach, it leaves the two of them with a pair of firecrackers sticks on their hands. It’s a lonely sight, especially seeing that the two are not talking to each other. It changes only once another firecracker dies down and he’s lighting up his last one.</p><p>“To answer your question, not really. I’m not as brave as you think,” he says, focusing solely on the pretty light from the stick and ignoring Yeonjun’s gaze that he can feel boring into the side of his face. “My turn to ask.”</p><p>“What game are we even playing…”</p><p>Beomgyu chuckles, dropping the question anyway. It’s one that has been stuck in the back of his mind since the first time Yeonjun made a kill for him, and he has to get the answer now that everything is ending and this might be the last time they see each other.</p><p>Why does he feel weird about it? When he wanted nothing more than to be free from all these hitman business.</p><p>“Why did you agree to work for me?”</p><p>“You literally threatened me.”</p><p>“No, seriously. It was a gamble even if I acted confident about it. The trap and rehiring you to be my hitman. The bracelet and alarm. The kills you had to do for me,” he takes a deep breath, finally turning his gaze to catch Yeonjun’s in his. “You had so many chances to kill me and disappear. Even Soobin wouldn’t be able to do anything about that.”</p><p>Yeonjun’s eyes are knitted together in confusion at the sudden question. But there was no hesitation in his face. It’s like he was purely confused for the spontaneous nature of the question and not the answer. Like he had always had an answer for it.</p><p>“Wouldn’t it be for the money? It’s an industry where we betray each other.”</p><p>“Is it?’ Beomgyu stares him down. The firecracker already dies down and they’re only left under the protection of the moonlight.</p><p>“Maybe not. It will ruin my life if I get caught,” he exhales a sigh of defeat, taking his time to pack up their burned out sticks and even had the audacity to leave him to find a trashcan when he’s waiting for an answer like this.</p><p>The wind is blowing stronger now, hitting Yeonjun’s dark blue hair and messing them up.</p><p>“So?”</p><p>“I actually questioned myself at first. All this time, I excused the idea because I don’t like betrayals, and seeing how your family betrayed you like that, leaving you all alone just don’t sit well with me.”</p><p>“Ouch? My life got saved because a hitman pitied me?”</p><p>“Shut up, or I’m not telling you the rest.”</p><p>Beomgyu makes a zipping motion across his lips, resting his cheek on top of his folded knees as he stares at the latter.</p><p>“So, I ended up diving deeper into this job. Even then, I kept my eyes for any opening, but all I could see when I watched you is a scared boy who has too much responsibilities on his shoulders. Nobody trusted him for such a big role, and they chose to get rid of him instead of helping him. Yet he fought head on instead of whining like a baby, like any rich kid would when they got their candies taken away from them.</p><p>That’s why even I, someone with the nature to <em>kill</em>, had the urge to protect him instead. Although in the end, that was not necessary either. Choi Beomgyu is fully capable, judging from how well he’s been using me.”</p><p>That’s not what Beomgyu expected at all. The more he listens to Yeonjun, the more he is lost in the ache that’s suddenly appearing in his chest. He hugs his legs closer, pressing his nose onto his knee. A chuckle that left his lips is muffled by the fabric of his pants.</p><p>“You’re making me sound like a manipulative guy. Using you for my own benefit.”</p><p>“Did you not hear what I said? I don’t really care about money or loyalty as long as I’m doing the kill. If I did it for you, it’s because I let you use me.”</p><p>“And that makes it better?” Beomgyu lifts his head to glare at the latter. Trust him to piss him off even after a full paragraph full of what supposed to be positive words.</p><p>“I wanted you to use me!”</p><p>At this, he can only blink slowly, watching as Yeonjun start to look pissed off as well.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Remember when I accidentally attacked you at that hotel’s bedroom?” he asks, and Beomgyu can only nod slowly, reminded of that night he thought he was the closest to death. “I saw fear in your eyes, and I didn’t feel happy about it, not like the usual. All I wanted to do was to change it into trust. I wanted you to look at me like how you look at Soobin.”</p><p>It’s a lot to take in. It hasn’t been that long, yet so many things have changed ever since the first time they met. There’s no resentment and fear that usually were settled deep in his guts whenever he saw Yeonjun. The hitman feels like something fixed in his life. He’s gotten too comfortable to the point that he could already lose his life if it were with anyone else.</p><p>But it’s Yeonjun. He already saw the guy kills people so many times, yet Beomgyu is only drawn to him more instead of steering away from something so dangerous.</p><p>“I will just ignore that part about how you usually felt happy seeing your targets in fear.”</p><p>“You should. That’s not the point,” Yeonjun sucks his breath through his teeth in exasperation.</p><p>Beomgyu laughs, stretching his legs out and turning his head to look at the latter. He even leans in, playfulness filling his eyes as he brings his face closer to Yeonjun so he can hold his gaze.</p><p>“How do I look at you now? Do you think it’s the same as how I look at Soob?”</p><p>It backfires on him right at the next second as he caught Yeonjun’s eyes. They are as dark as the sea right now, drawing him in and making him unable to pry his gaze away. He can’t even blink his eyes, even as he saw Yeonjun’s hand moving from a corner of his eyes. Then he feels it, the gentle touch on his hair, and the soft brushing down until the fingers are rested on his nape.</p><p>Beomgyu drops his gaze, afraid to be lost in Yeonjun’s eyes, only to curse himself more as he caught himself staring at Yeonjun’s lips. They are moving now. Plush lips forming words that tickle his cheek in a whisper.</p><p>“Not the same. You only look at me like this,” he says, turning his head slightly so that his nose is touching Beomgyu’s. It makes his breath hitch, heart beating fast against his ribcage when he noticed the proximity.</p><p>It’s hard to breathe like this, but it feels good.</p><p>“It’s all mine.”</p><p>He can feel the words brushing gently against his lips. Can taste it on his tongue. It’s so thick and palpable in the air that it engulfs him in a suffocating hold. That’s how Yeonjun always makes him feel. Tightness in his chest and heart beating in disarray. Now it all makes sense. It’s not the thrill of being in danger, it’s just <em>Yeonjun</em>.</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“What the fuck?” </em>
</p><p>The night has been so weird.</p><p>All Yeonjun remember is that he wants to kiss Choi Beomgyu, and the next second he finds himself lying down on the sand with a throbbing chin. It takes him a few seconds to register the fact that the younger had pushed him on the face with his whole strength, now standing up over him as Yeonjun glares up.</p><p>“I’m sorry—uhm, gotta go!” Beomgyu looks like he is not breathing properly now, but his lungs still allow him to make a run.</p><p>It takes a few seconds for Yeonjun to come into his senses and get up, breaking into a run to chase the blonde just like how he’d do it to his prey.</p><p>“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DON’T COME HERE!” Beomgyu yells when he spots him after glancing over his shoulder, making Yeonjun roll his eyes because there’s no way he has anywhere to go without Yeonjun coming with him. He can’t drive the car on his own and he has none of his beloved bodyguards around.  </p><p>Feeling competitive, Yeonjun wills his legs to run faster, smiling triumphantly when he sees Beomgyu struggling with opening the door to the passenger seat. The vehicle is not even unlocked yet.</p><p>“Caught you,” he corners the poor boy against the door of the car, trapping him with an arm blocking his way back to the beach. They’re both panting at this point, and Beomgyu is finally turning around to face him again, although still keeping himself as far away as possible with a car behind him.</p><p>It’s honestly adorable, how Beomgyu can shrink himself like this.</p><p>“Hello there,” Beomgyu smiles innocently, still catching his breath with his head tipped back against the window. “Fancy meeting you here.”</p><p>“Bullshit. Why did you run like that?” Yeonjun smiles back, only that his smile has a darker edge to it, possibly a threatening one seeing as Beomgyu’s eyes are already seeking for another exit again. Sighing, he finally drops his hand, standing up straight to give the latter some space.</p><p>“Sorry, I’m just…”</p><p>“It’s fine. I won’t do anything you don’t like.”</p><p>Beomgyu bites his lip. “It’s not that I don’t want it. You made me feel all sort of things that are just… <em>ugh</em>,” he gesticulates with his hands as if that could explain his emotions. “You made me nervous. It’s hard to breathe.”</p><p><em>Fuck</em>. He is so cute.</p><p>“You made me run all the way here just because you’re nervous for your first kiss?”</p><p>“What? It’s not—“Beomgyu’s face is turning bright red, even under the minimum light. His lips are parted and closed as he seeks for words to say, only to breathe out weakly. “You’re such an asshole, and—“</p><p>“And?”</p><p>“And I really want to kiss you.”</p><p>As soon as the words left Beomgyu’s lips, they are replaced by Yeonjun’s lips pressing against his own. Everything about this is adorable, with how the blonde practically melts in his hold, to the point that Yeonjun has to hold around his waist securely, cushioning the impact as he pins Beomgyu against the side of the car.</p><p>When they separated, Beomgyu looks at him with stars in his eyes, and it takes everything for Yeonjun not to kiss him again.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>Once they get back from the beach, Yeonjun drops Beomgyu and his car at his mansion, but not overstaying his welcome there under the intimidating eyes of the guards. In their eyes, he is still that hitman who tried to break into their master’s room and take his life. As if so many kills he did for Beomgyu hasn’t proven his loyalty for the guy.</p><p>But where does his loyalty lie?</p><p>Only at that moment is he thinking about the agency again. He basically has failed the job given to him, and the person who gave the job is lying inside his coffin at the funeral home. It won’t be long until Taehyung calls him to give him another job. If ever.</p><p>Thinking about the agency makes Yeonjun miss the mint liquor he can have personally made for him, so that’s where he goes. The night is still young for him when he steps into the building, rubbing his nose and ignoring a few people he spotted on the corridors. The bartender recognizes him right away, handing him the tall glass with a green coloured liquid that he sips slowly.</p><p>“Did you hear about Sakura?”</p><p>Yeonjun freezes at the question. Seven sometimes does talk to him when he sits at the bar, but it’s not often enough to make them casual friends. He can’t help but to eye him cautiously from the rim of his glass, carefully choosing his words.</p><p>“If you’re asking if she contacted me again, nope. You know how she is. Dumping boys here and there,” he scoffs.</p><p>“Not that one. I heard that she’s found dead.”</p><p>The news sure travels fast in this place. Yeonjun finds it ironic, how the higher ups think they can value the closeness of the members as if they’re family, while they shoot rookies in the head for failing their missions and let their ‘family members’ kill each other for competition. This half-assed family game causes nosy people to stick their noses into other’s business.</p><p>“Saku?” Yeonjun tries his best to look surprised. “No way… she’s too good to fall in a mission.”</p><p>“Right? The weirdest thing is that, she is not even working on a mission right now.”</p><p>“She said Taehyung gave her a mission?”</p><p>“Nope. She’s practically jobless after getting drunk on mission last time.”</p><p>So she had lied about the mission, and it works in Yeonjun’s favour since nobody will connect Sakura’s death to his butchered mission. Nobody will come into a conclusion that he is the one who killed all these people.</p><p>As if hearing his thoughts, the person he doesn’t want to see the most casually walks into the pub. He is wearing a more casual work outfit, which usually means he is in a good mood, but Yeonjun can’t really tell at this point since the guy is not smiling at him like usual.</p><p>Seating himself next to the hitman, Taehyung just has to tilt his head for Seven to leave his shot glass on the bar top before him and leaves the area.</p><p>“Didn’t think I’d see you here on a school night.”</p><p>“Well, I can’t really get alcohol at that rotten place after all,” Yeonjun says, lifting his glass to down the rest of his drink as if to make his point. “Besides, it’s easy to get in and out of the gate.”</p><p>“As expected of our Daniel. I’ve always known that you’d be the one who made the kill. Not that kid from another team,” Taehyung looks pissed as he downs his shot. “But he is dead, you know? Shouldn’t you be terrified for your fate now?”</p><p>Yeonjun stares at him impassively. “I didn’t know someone else was assigned for the kid.”</p><p>“That’s a relief. I was thinking you could be caught in some rivalry debacle. It really won’t look good for your career,” he says. Yeonjun has to swallow a retort about how he was trained to be <em>this</em> competitive, especially when he had to compete with Taehyun back on his first few months of being in the agency. “But there’s been some talks. We’re not happy with these deaths happening in our family.”</p><p>“Isn’t it common though? We’re a high-risk profession after all.”</p><p>“Are we?’ Taehyung arches a brow, reaching out to put his hand under Yeonjun’s leather jacket and pulls the gun from its holster. He is suddenly thankful of his decision to change out of his funeral clothing before coming here. “When you’re at this level, there’s not much risk left. Aside from your fellow hitman. You got me?”</p><p>“So you’re saying that those people are killed by another hitman?” he deadpans, stiffening under the touch of gun along his skin as Taehyung drags it to his neck. He really respects the older man ever since he joined the agency, but sometimes he can be like this, and no one can tell if he is being hostile or just playful. You can only sit there and let him do anything.</p><p>“Smart boy. I really don’t want you to be caught in this too, so quickly finish off the kid and you’ll be off the case.”</p><p>At this, Yeonjun frowns. He almost asks dumbly if the case still exists, but that would have blown his cover since he is not supposed to know the identity of his client. He was waiting for Taehyung to announce that he is off the case already, only to be encouraged to hasten it instead.</p><p>“You think that bastard, whoever it is, will get me, too?” he asks instead, playing it off with a cocky smirk.</p><p>“I don’t doubt your talent, but they think this guy might be a little dangerous. Remember that traitor, T? He was trained by the founder himself for years, so he knows everything about how we move.”</p><p>The mention of Taehyun has Yeonjun stiffened, even as the gun is lifted off his skin already and now in the hands of Taehyung who twirls it around with a bored look.</p><p>“Is he…”</p><p>“Yes, we think he is the one behind this, since he’s close with Choi Beomgyu too.”</p><p>This can’t be good. He needs to warn Taehyun before these people could do something to him, if they haven’t already. After all, he still owes the guy for taking care of his bullet wounds.</p><p>“That guy can choke on a bullet and die,” he spat.</p><p>Taehyung laughs at that, placing the gun on the bar top before sliding it over to Yeonjun who swiftly catches it. “I knew you still have some unresolved beef with him, so this plan should go smoothly.”</p><p>“What plan?”</p><p>“I will fill you in on it, okay? The client agreed with the change of plan from the initial accident scheme. He doesn’t really care anymore as long as the guy is dead.”</p><p>At the mention of this client, Yeonjun feels his heart drops to his guts. The man is still alive, so they got a wrong target. All along, it’s never been Choi Jongho who hired him, that’s why he didn’t really recognize his voice when they met briefly at that shooting center. That’s also why the man took the assassination into his own hand, with those people killed along with him at that burned down building.</p><p>“Okay, can’t wait for it,” he answers monotonously, just to look excited about the kill.</p><p>Taehyung smiles, and then grabs onto his upper arm just right where his wound is still healing under the bandage. It takes everything in him for Yeonjun not to scream out of pain, holding it back by clenching his teeth, faking a smile at the elder.</p><p>“You don’t have to be nervous, puppy. It’s always easy to get rid of traitors, right? You’ve seen me done it a lot of times,” he smiles, a hidden promise behind the mask of his friendly expression. “After all, we need to show those trash where they belong.”</p><p>Once Taehyung walks away from him and disappears behind the door, Yeonjun lets himself slump back with his back against the edge of the bar. His wound is throbbing; the bandage is probably painted red with his blood again. As the cloud of pain is slowly dissipating from his head, he is not only aware of the danger that’s coming for Taehyun.</p><p>He also sees one coming for him, just as told by the look in Taehyung eyes before he left the room.</p><p>Yeonjun is being tested, and it’s up to him whether he comes out alive or not.</p><p>But in order to survive this, he has to steal all the stars from Beomgyu’s eyes, leaving them all dull and void of light as he takes his soul away from his lithe body. Yeonjun can still feel Beomgyu’s warmth in his arms, yet he is already thinking about killing him again. How sick is that?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. heartbreak(-ing kind of love)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Beomgyu is not staying at the house.</p><p>After the incident, he has been staying over at Yeonjun’s apartment, casually hogging his bed while the wounded hitman sleeps at the couch. For some reasons, the guy is not taking him home after the beach trip, casually dropping him off at the mansion to be all on his own. There’s no Soobin in that house, so he just did the most logical thing he could come up with.</p><p>At midnight, he is already at the hospital, allowing himself to enter Soobin’s private room and sitting down by the bed.</p><p>It’s painful, seeing his best friend like this. But it’s more painful that the guy doesn’t want to see him ever since the night of the incident.</p><p>As he sits down on that chair in a total quietness of the room, he listens to the sound of Soobin’s breathing, eyes trained at the shadow of moonlight from the back of the curtained window. The flashes of memories that he’s been trying to suppress are surfacing again. The blood under his fingertips, the gun in his hand, the split second of redness in his eyes as he pulls the trigger. For that one second, he had transformed into a killer, even before he saw the bullet hit that guy. The dangerous thought had swallowed him, making him tap into the feral side inside of him.</p><p>He remembers judging Yeonjun about not being guilty about his kills, but now he’s just the same.</p><p>That feral side is also the one who sat there taking a beating from Jongho’s hitmen. He had clenched his teeth and took everything. All the anger and pain; he turned them all into something so dark that made even Yeonjun hesitate before carrying out his command.</p><p>He had suppressed everything until now that he is alone again. With Yeonjun, he felt a sense of calmness, like everything would be alright the next morning even if he fell asleep. He thought that it was because they both had murdered people in cold blood, but later on figured out that it has the same cause with the weird thing happened to his heart whenever the elder is around.</p><p>Now that he is sitting there with Soobin, he feels everything. It’s all heightened even more with his suspicion that Soobin has purposely avoided him.</p><p>He feels drops of water seeping into the fabric of his pants. Can feel them on his skin. For a second, he feels the same fear because of the remembrance of having Soobin’s blood dripping onto his shirt. But when he looks down, he realized that it’s just his tears.</p><p>It paints a pathetic picture. One of the richest men in the country is sitting on the side of his sick best friend’s hospital bed, crying his heart out as if he hadn’t just had the best day of his life.</p><p>He clamps a hand over his mouth, trying to stifle his sobs as he bends over to hide his face on the edge of the bed. His shoulder is shaking softly with every sharp breath he takes. It’s really cold, piercing his lungs until it’s hard to breathe. All he can think about is the worst scenarios that he thought about that night, about how Soobin is not surviving, and the last thing Soobin would see was his best friend becoming a murderer.</p><p>The thing that plugs up those dark thoughts from streaming all over his head is the gentle brush of fingers on his hair. He doesn’t need to look up to know who it is, can recognize the touch at any time.</p><p>“Why are you crying on my bedside? We made a promise that we would never do it on each other’s death bed.”</p><p>Beomgyu almost laughs at that, but he hiccups instead, swallowing back more tears that are threatening to spill out. “You’re not even dying. You’re just about to die because you didn’t want to see me,” he says. Even his threat sounds really weak now. More like a kicked puppy.</p><p>“Don’t say that. I wanted to see you.”</p><p>“You avoided me! You’re only awake when Tae is over and at other times you’re always sleeping or undergoing checkups. You don’t want to see me because I—I killed someone.”</p><p>There’s a painful silence hanging between them as he spills that. It feels like a weight has been lifted from his chest, at least he has given Soobin the opportunity to just nod instead of admitting with his own words. It’s even his rights to refuse a murderer to stay inside his room so late in the night like this. Beomgyu thinks he should be more considerate.</p><p>But of course he is selfish. He has been raised as a selfish kid, always putting himself first. He’s not ashamed of that.</p><p>If by being selfish he could keep Soobin in his life, then he’s going to be the most selfish man on earth.</p><p>There’s no way he can lose his safe place.</p><p>“Is that what you really think of me?” Soobin’s gentle voice reaches out to him again.</p><p>Beomgyu looks up, face all teary and swollen from crying. He flinches when Soobin’s hands cup his face, brushing the tears away with his thumbs. That makes him blink slowly at his best friend, tears stopped from rolling off his eyes as he looks at the male in confusion. It’s not because Soobin is comforting him, but because of the pained look he can see on Soobin’s face.</p><p>“Soob?”</p><p>“You think I don’t want to see <em>you</em> over that trivial thing?” he sounds so sad too. Beomgyu wants to cry again for making his best friend sad. “I want to see you so much it hurts. But I don’t deserve to look at you again after what happened.”</p><p>“What?” Beomgyu gapes.</p><p>“I was supposed to protect you, Beomgyu. What happened then? You ended up protecting me instead, and then got kidnapped. If there’s no Yeonjun… I wouldn’t have forgiven myself. I would probably die.”</p><p>Beomgyu shakes his head rapidly before jumping up to his feet. He swats Soobin’s hands away before cupping the taller male’s cheeks instead to make him focus on him.</p><p>“It’s not your fault, you idiot. You didn’t come there to work, but as a part of the family—“</p><p>“Stop the family bullshit, Beomgyu. I’m not a family. I promised dad to take care of you, and I’ve failed him.”</p><p>“What… what the fuck, Choi Soobin? Did the bullet mess up with your head?” he starts to get annoyed now, brushing his tears away from his face furiously.</p><p>Soobin too, has straightened up to sit on the bed. There’s no more trace of sleep on his face. His jaws are set, intimidating to even Beomgyu since he never looked this stern even when he’s nagged him countless of times.</p><p>“Did you know why I asked dad to disown me last year? Just as I came of age?”</p><p>“Because you wanted to be independent? Wanted a normal life? Wait, how is this related to—“</p><p>“It’s cause I don’t want to be more in debt than I already am. I keep on asking for more, and in the end, I even fell in love with you, as if I had any rights…”</p><p>Beomgyu opens his mouth to retort, only to shut his lips again upon realizing what Soobin had said. All the arguments he had prepared in his head dissipated into the thin air, replaced by the thought of Soobin being in love with him. Choi Soobin. His best friend is in love with him and he never noticed it after spending so many years together.</p><p>“I’ve been in love with you even before I learned the word <em>love</em>,” Soobin keeps going, unaware of how Beomgyu is pained by his words, biting onto his lower lip as he listens to channel the pain. “But it’s never my place, to love you like that, so the best thing I could do was to stay and protect you with my life. Even then, I still failed. I really don’t deserve to even speak to you like this.”</p><p>“Don’t say that…”</p><p>“Say what? It’s the truth, Beomgyu.”</p><p>After holding it back for so long until he can’t breathe anymore, Beomgyu finally engulfs the air, releasing a sob from his chest. He knows that he cries a lot, but he never thought that he’d be this weak. It’s not even something new, since Yeonjun already hinted it last time, about how Soobin might have this kind of feeling for him. They have been best friends for years, and Beomgyu is the only one who never noticed anything.</p><p>That Soobin feels this way about him. That he also feels like he doesn’t deserve to <em>feel</em> it.</p><p>He can’t imagine how lonely it must be for Soobin, keeping it for years.</p><p>“Why did you never say anything?” he whispers the question, not trusting his own voice not to break.</p><p>“Would it make any difference?”</p><p>“It would!” Beomgyu does let his voice break this time as he almost screams at the latter. He lifts his gaze to glare at Soobin. “You’re the most important person to me. I love you, and you know that, right?”</p><p>Soobin sighs, looking more exasperated than before even though Beomgyu just practically confessed his feelings back. It’s not even a lie. Aside from his parents, Soobin is the only person Beomgyu has ever cared about, and he would do anything for this guy. He wouldn’t have thought twice if this scenario happened earlier, but now his tears just won’t stop flowing from his eyes. He’s so sick for this.</p><p>The fact that he’s crying because he can’t stop thinking about Yeonjun’s lips on top of his, when his best friend is confessing his love to him.</p><p>“You love me, but not in the way I want you to,” Soobin says, batting his hands away from rubbing his eyes too much. His fingers are still gentle as he catches the drops of Beomgyu’s tears. He is smiling, but it looks so sad. He doesn’t want that on Soobin. “And it’s okay. If it means that you will be safer without me, I’ll take that.”</p><p>“Don’t be an idiot. You know I can’t go on without you.”</p><p>“You protected me back there, stop underestimating yourself, Beom.”</p><p>“That’s different! I could only do that because you were in danger!”</p><p>Beomgyu is exasperated now, getting up from his chair and grabbing the front of Soobin’s shirt to shake him a little. He hopes his eyes are damaged by tears by now, because he doesn’t want to trust the look on Soobin’s eyes. The sad smile on his face that reminded him of last year when he told Beomgyu he was out of the family, and Beomgyu had begged him to stay. The look that tells Beomgyu that Soobin is going to leave him.</p><p>Only now, he does not have any reason to stay anymore.</p><p>He only stops shaking the poor guy when he saw Soobin winced, clutching onto his ribs. That’s when he also sees the sheen of tears glistening in Soobin’s eyes. Soobin, who has never shed any tears since they graduated elementary school and he vowed to protect Beomgyu. Beomgyu looks at him with wide eyes, already devoid of tears. The realization hits him until he has to take a step back to slump onto his seat again.</p><p>“You’re really going to leave me this time.”</p><p>It’s not a question or a wondering statement. It’s a realization.</p><p>“I really don’t know, Beomgyu,” Soobin says softly. “But right now it really hurts to see you.”</p><p>Beomgyu sits there in silent as his heart breaks inside his chest. His lips are pressed thin, fists clenched tightly to refrain himself for making any other move as he watches Soobin lies back down on his bed and turns to his side, giving his back to Beomgyu.</p><p>It’s true that Beomgyu has never thought of Soobin in that way. All his life, he has seen Soobin as his best friend who he would die for, but never allowed himself to think about the possibilities of their hand-holding becomes something less than platonic and their cuddling sessions are littered with kisses. Yet, his heart is hurting so much over the thought of losing Soobin.</p><p>He thinks about it some more as he drags his feet out from the room, not wanting to overstay his welcome.</p><p>In that dark corridor, he sits down with his knees folded against his chest. His strength is fully depleted from the long day he just had and he doesn’t have the mental capacity to even call someone to take him home.</p><p>At that moment, a certain memory just happens to come back in his head, playing like an old record when he closed his eyes. He and Soobin were seven years old. Eyes sparkling with innocence, pure from any weights of the world they had to carry now. He remembers the conversation he had with Soobin back then, and wonders if he has really played blind for way too long.</p><p> </p><p>(“Those two are dating? Gross. Don’t girls have cooties?”</p><p>“Don’t say that! They actually smell nice.”</p><p>“Soobin-ah, you’re going to catch cooties from them and you’re not allowed to sleep in my bed again.”</p><p>“Okay. No girls. How about me, though? Would you want to date me?”</p><p>Beomgyu looked at him, not missing a single beat to reach out and take his hand.</p><p>“I’d date you.”</p><p>“Really?” Soobin’s cheeks are flushed.</p><p>“I’d pick you over anyone else!”)</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>“What are you doing here?”</p><p>Beomgyu wakes up to a bright corridor, and a concerned face of Taehyun looking down at him. He didn’t even remember falling asleep right there in front of Soobin’s room. The fact that no nurse bothered to wake him up must mean that this is a normal occurrence in this place. At least someone had the decency to drape a blanket over his shoulder.</p><p>Wrapping the fabric tighter around his frame, he gets up to face his friend, a smile on his lips. “I’m just waiting for any human contact! Big boy is sleeping,” he gestures to the door with his chin, even though he absolutely has no clue.</p><p>“Didn’t think I’d see you here, though. Are you going to class today?”</p><p>Upon further look, Beomgyu can see that Taehyun is already in his uniform. “You’re going?”</p><p>“Yeah, just dropping these books first.”</p><p>Judging from how fast Taehyun comes back out from the room, he assumes that Soobin is still asleep. Beomgyu decided to just join the guy and go back to the academy, even though it’s for another purpose as he needs his bed more than education.</p><p>He must have looked like a mess now. Eyes swollen from the night of crying and his steps unsteady as he follows Taehyun to exit the building. If Taehyun noticed it, he doesn’t comment on it, and that’s what Beomgyu likes the most from him.</p><p>Soon after, they are already seated on a bus that takes them back to the school. Beomgyu’s head is rested against Taehyun’s shoulder while the guy in glasses is busy scrolling down social media. He keeps his gaze trained on the moving texts even as his mind is somewhere else, not even realizing when he voices his question out loud.</p><p>“Tae, do you have a crush on Soobin?”</p><p>“Yes,” Taehyun answers without any thought, not ashamed or flustered of anything. Beomgyu strives to be someone like him.</p><p>“Do you know he has a crush on me?”</p><p>“Yes,” he answers just as quickly, only this time adding a detail soon later. “I think you’re the only one unaware about it.”</p><p>Beomgyu groans, bouncing his forehead against Taehyun’s shoulder before staying silent there.</p><p>“He confessed, didn’t he?” Taehyun asks, earning an affirmative hum from him. “And you can’t return his feelings?”</p><p>“I don’t know,” he mumbles.</p><p>Sighing, Taehyun locks his phone, though not moving away. He must be irritated by Beomgyu being insensitive like this, but he doesn’t have many friends he can trust, especially when it comes to such trivial thing like romance.</p><p>“My turn to ask.”</p><p>“You’ve already asked—“Beomgyu mumbles his complaint, only to get cut off by a seemingly serious question that’s not connected to the initial one.</p><p>“First, have you ever felt watched lately?”</p><p>Okay, that’s an odd question, especially to a friend who has just asked him a question about his crush, and then proceeded to inform that the said crush just confessed to someone else. It instantly wakes Beomgyu up from his half-asleep daze, making him lift his head to look at the latter.</p><p>“Not really? Why?”</p><p>“Second, what will you do if someone you trusted turns out to be a danger to your life?”</p><p>This question has Beomgyu sitting there in silence for a moment. A certain face pops out in his head right away, and he is ashamed to even think about the possibility of Yeonjun bringing danger to him when he has done so much to help him stay alive. He’s even more ashamed to think that he has trusted Yeonjun now.</p><p>They reached the bus stop in front of the academy just before he can say his answer. Both questions burning into his head even as they have to get off and make a run for the gate</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>(  ∞  )</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Yeonjun was 15 the first time he got arrested.</p><p>It was the motorbike that he stole to get away from that slum he called home that got him handcuffed, kept in a cold cell for days before he was thrown into some juvenile control home. Everything stemmed from his building up hatred towards the person he called mother. The only thing he can remember from her is the smell of alcohol when she gets home in the wee hours of the night.</p><p>His mother didn’t come to pick him up on the day of his release, and the only thing he felt was relief. Instead, a man approached him to tell him how he was wasting his youth and athletic ability.</p><p>The decision to follow this man was a leap of faith. It could end up with human trafficking or prostitution, but he was taken in for ‘training’.</p><p>On the first few weeks, he had to watch as Jiro – his mentor – executed his ‘works’. His favourite position was on top of a building or somewhere among the bushes in the woods, always ready to hunt with his rifle. That’s where Yeonjun got his obsession towards rifles, even if his speciality pointed more towards close combats.</p><p>“Do you think it’s right, what you are doing right now?” Yeonjun asked him once.</p><p>“Not at all, but this is one way for <em>us</em> to stay alive, and does anyone have the right to judge when they would let us die in a ditch otherwise?”</p><p>The day after, Yeonjun stopped coming to watch his mentor. It was also the first day he was allowed to hold a gun and try shooting something. The spark of excitement blooming in his chest was the only thing keeping him alive through the harsh training.</p><p>
  <em>“This is harsh for you? You wouldn’t last a day when I throw you back on the street!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“With that lousy aim, you’ll have 3 bullets in your head before you can even scratch your target!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Yeah, that must’ve hurt, but you’re only allowed to whine about it when I send you back to your mother. Got it?”</em>
</p><p>Those were just few of the scolding he got throughout the early days of his training. They got lesser as he got better, and then one day it just ceased. It marked the day he was brought to the agency building for the first time. That was a terrifying experience, seeing all these new faces, knowing that they killed people the way he had seen Jiro did a lot of times, but none of their appearances gave it away. He was then introduced as an addition to the little group while his mentor disappeared for his retirement from this dirty business.</p><p>To think that it just had been one year since he joined the agency was baffling for Yeonjun, especially at how things had changed.</p><p>Switching sides. Hiding a traitor. Killing a colleague. Lying to a higher-up.</p><p>He had gotten away with these for longer than he expected, so it would just be a matter of time before everything got exposed. Would he risk losing his place in the agency just to keep someone alive? Or worse, losing his life over it?</p><p>As if answering his questions, his phone rings on his bed. He sighs seeing Beomgyu’s name on the screen, a small smile tugging his lips when he slides his thumb over the screen to answer it.</p><p>“What? Can’t handle not having me in the dorm for one night?”</p><p>Beomgyu is not saying anything for a few seconds, and he almost goes into an alarmed state if only it’s not for a familiar scoff that comes from the formerly silent line. <em>“Totally not. I just don’t feel like going all the way back to the academy tonight.”</em></p><p>“You went to the hospital?”</p><p>
  <em>“Mmhm.”</em>
</p><p>“To see Soobin?”</p><p>
  <em>“I wish. He didn’t want to see me.”</em>
</p><p>That makes Yeonjun hum in wonder. He thought that by now, Soobin has prepared himself to see his best friend already since it’s been days since the last time he asked for that favour. But he can’t blame the guy either.</p><p>With a sigh, he pulls himself up from the bed, grabbing his leather jacket on the way out. “Are you still there? I will pick you up.”</p><p>
  <em>“No, I—“</em>
</p><p>When he opens the front door, he comes face to face with none other than Choi Beomgyu himself. He is just standing there with the phone pressed to his ear like a deer caught in headlights. His face flushed when he sees Yeonjun, quickly averting his gaze somewhere else while the owner of the place is still stunned in the doorway.</p><p>Yeonjun is ashamed of himself for thinking that this is one of the most adorable things he’s ever seen.</p><p>“Idiot. Why didn’t you just come in?” he takes the blonde by his hand and pulls him inside. Beomgyu stumbles right into his arms. The impact cushioned by his chest. “Guess you did miss me that much, huh?”</p><p>“Shut up.”</p><p>He managed to make Yeonjun drop his arms from around his small frame by stomping onto the hitman’s foot, leaving him at the front door with a small victory laugh. Yeonjun is not even mad. It’s a nice change, seeing Beomgyu in his place being all laughing and smiling, in contrary to his condition last time.</p><p>“So… what brought you here?” he finally asks, deciding to give the poor boy a break.</p><p>“I saw bandages and antiseptic at the hospital and thought of you.”</p><p>“Choi Beomgyu, you—“he stops as he watches Beomgyu takes a roll of bandage out of his bag, along with a bottle of antiseptics. “You’re really good at finding excuses.”</p><p>The latter smiles proudly.</p><p>That’s how they end up in bed, with Yeonjun’s shirt off and Beomgyu carefully peeling off the bandage around his arm. This is not what Yeonjun had in mind when it comes to being in bed with Beomgyu, with his shirt off. But it’s really hard to think about it when he is dealing with the sting from his wound again.</p><p>It heals nicely. Yeonjun did his best redoing the dressing every night just like how Taehyun instructed him to. The incident with Taehyung got him peeling off a bloody bandage that night, a setback to his healing phase, and the reason why it still hurts now.</p><p>“This is the third time you’re hurt because of me.”</p><p>Yeonjun blinks, recalling the other two times. He remembers being in their dorm’s bathroom with Beomgyu cleaning the wound that he got from the knife. And then that night where he came home from killing someone with a sprained ankle. All three times, Beomgyu had tried to make him feel better, even though it’s not his responsibility.</p><p>A client just has to sit back and watch. After all, they are paying for his service.</p><p>“Remember that day we did this in the bathroom?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“You mentioned about Soobin being in love with me.”</p><p>“And?” he watches as Beomgyu takes his lower lip between his teeth. His nervous tic. Something he does a lot when he is piecing up words to say. This time, Yeonjun beats him to it. “He told you, didn’t he?”</p><p>“Kind of… we talked about things. I thought he didn’t want to see me because I’m a murderer now, but it’s more complicated than that,” he sighs.</p><p>He stays silent for a bit, watching as Beomgyu focuses back on wrapping a new bandage around his arm. His eyes are fixed on the limb, fingers working deftly on putting it on. Yet the way his eyebrows are furrowed is giving away how his mind is somewhere else.</p><p>“Is it bothering you? Are you sure you don’t have feelings for him?”</p><p>“It’s not like that, I just…” he trails off. His gaze flits away from its focus on the bandage and up to catch Yeonjun’s eyes instead. And then there’s a soft flush of pink spreading across his cheeks, making Yeonjun unable to hold back a smirk on his lips.</p><p>“You just fell for me that hard, huh?”</p><p>Beomgyu puts a little too much pressure in sticking the end of bandage. It causes the smirk to instantly drop from Yeonjun’s face as he hisses.</p><p>“Shut up. You idiot,” he rolls his eyes, throwing the spare roll of bandage at Yeonjun’s face. “It’s just that I never thought of him in that way before. Soobin is always <em>there</em>. A fixture in my life. I didn’t think of putting label on the special bond we have, but now…”</p><p>“You’re considering it.”</p><p>There’s a moment of silence as Beomgyu avoids his gaze, fiddling with the sleeves of his knitted sweater that exceeded his knuckles. That brief pause is enough to fill Yeonjun’s chest with stones. It spreads over his system in the form of heat; a possessive urge that he didn’t know he had. Sure, they had kissed, and he still remembers Beomgyu’s heart beating madly against his chest as they were pressed so close together, but that doesn’t come close to the bond shared by the two.</p><p>With all the thoughts in his head, he almost didn’t catch it when Beomgyu speaks again, only sees the pair of lips moving before he’s already leaning in. His plush lips catching Beomgyu’s in a kiss, swallowing the surprised gasp that slip past the parted tiers.</p><p>“What the…“Beomgyu tries to speak again when he pulls away. “I was saying that Soob—“</p><p>Before the name can be voiced out, Yeonjun is already kissing him again. His hand is holding Beomgyu’s nape now, slowly travelling down the curve of his back until they are looped protectively around the younger’s waist. He can feel Beomgyu shivers pleasantly in his arm, and before he knows it, the male is already crawling to sit on his lap.</p><p>Beomgyu is pretty. He has had the thought ever since he caught a sight of him that first night they met. He just thinks that Beomgyu is prettier like this, sitting on his lap and panting softly from the breathtaking kiss. Face flushed and lips kiss-swollen.</p><p>“Fucker. Let me speak,” he says, sighing softly when Yeonjun suckles on his lower lip.</p><p>He’s so easy to distract, it’s so adorable.</p><p>With an amused laugh, Yeonjun throws himself back to lie down on top of the piles of his pillows, watching the blonde where he is still seated on his lap. “Yeah, whatever.”</p><p>“I’m just saying that Soobin is like a home to me. He makes me feel safe and I love him for that. No one else, not even you, could take that away.”</p><p>Yeonjun arches a brow. “Ouch?”</p><p>“But you, Choi Yeonjun. You make my heart beats,” Beomgyu says, dropping his gaze so he won’t have to look into Yeonjun’s eyes that are boring into him. He picks the elder’s hand from on top of his thigh, guiding it up to press onto his chest where Yeonjun can feel the soft beating against his palm. “It beats in the way it’s never been before, and I thought I was dying but it’s just you, and I hate myself more for that.”</p><p>The stones in Yeonjun’s chest disappear, replaced with a swarm of butterflies that set low on his tummy. He feels like a teenager once again, and as much as it doesn’t go well with the darkness of his other part of life as a hitman, he allows himself to feel.</p><p>“Choi Beomgyu, just admit that you’re in love with me.”</p><p>“WHAT?”</p><p>“Stop trying to find a plausible explanation and figure out the science behind it!”</p><p>“I’m not, I just—“ he sputters, yelping softly when Yeonjun pulls him down flush on top of him.</p><p>Now that he is closer, Yeonjun can read him better. Can feel Beomgyu’s heartbeats again as his chest is right atop of his own. Can feel his hitched breath against his lips. It’s a dangerous moment, because right there as his stomach is infected by butterflies and his head is stuffed by cotton candy, he decided that he might give up everything for this guy.</p><p>He wonders if his face gives it away, because Beomgyu’s eyes softened, and he is the one who leans in for the kiss. For the first time ever. The words caressing his lips in a whisper before their lips met again.</p><p>“I hate you so much.”</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>One of the worst outcomes from the incident for Yeonjun is waking up and realizing that he still has to put on his uniform and go to school.</p><p>He really is not in the mood to play school when his head is filled by the possibilities of what the agency could do to finish this case. Now that his contract with Choi Beomgyu has been completed, he has more than enough money sitting in his bank account for him to disappear from the face of the world. The price of doing that is Taehyun taking the blame for him and someone else is hired to kill Beomgyu.</p><p>It shouldn’t be this hard for Yeonjun, yet he is knocking his head repeatedly against his desk as he tries to find another way for this whole thing to end. The science teacher is trying to get his attention now, but he really can’t be bothered now. Not until his head is whacked by a book.</p><p>That’s when he sits up straight, mildly registering the sound of Beomgyu’s muffled giggles from behind him. Fuck him.</p><p>The other thing he notices is Taehyun peering at him from behind his glasses, a few tables away from his own. He returns the stare, conflicted for a moment before he takes out his phone to text the male.</p><p>That’s also how he got his phone confiscated by the end of the class.</p><p>He really hates high school.</p><p> </p><p>“What is it?” Taehyun says as he walks towads Yeonjun who is busy figuring out how the coffee machine works.</p><p>“Don’t talk to me,” he doesn’t look up, but he can feel the incredulous look thrown at him. “I mean, act like you’re not talking to me. Come on.”</p><p>Sighing, Taehyun picks up a paper cup from the stack. “Are you finally instructed to get rid of me?”</p><p>“Close enough. They think you’re sabotaging my mission, so they’re planning on a way to get rid of you and my target altogether. Even me, if I don’t cooperate.”</p><p>“Wouldn’t it be easy for you to do? You don’t even like me,” Taehyun scoffs. “So that’s why I got someone on my tail these days.”</p><p>“But I owe you one,” he says, ignoring the look given by him by the high schooler as he takes away the filled-up cup from the machine, taking a sip of the black liquid. “And I can’t let them kill my target.”</p><p>“You don’t sound much like a hitman now. Reconsider switching sides like me.”</p><p>Yeonjun laughs at that. “Never. I still have passion to kill, but not this one.”</p><p>“Who is your target anyway?”</p><p>He doesn’t know what Taehyun expected by asking that question, since he’s not supposed to ever tell anyone about it. But at that moment, the period ends and Beomgyu comes waddling out of the class. His face brightens up when he spots Yeonjun in the corridor, quickly making his way over.</p><p>“Guess who destroyed you in the last physics test? Me. Choi Beomgyu!” he says smugly, showing off the mid-term test results displayed on two pieces of paper. One for each of them.</p><p>“I’m not the one who needs to graduate here…”</p><p>“Still! At least I’m not the last one in class anymore ever since we have you,” he smiles brightly, and Yeonjun can’t help but to reach out to pet his head. That earns him a soft smile from the blonde that makes his insides all warm. It’s only when Beomgyu turns to look at Taehyun that he remembers the purpose of him hanging out in the corridor like this. “It’s thanks for your tutoring sessions too, of course. Let’s go out for BBQ soon, okay?”</p><p>When Beomgyu leaves them first to go to the restroom, Yeonjun feels Taehyun’s stare on him again.</p><p>“Seriously, Choi Yeonjun? My best friend?”</p><p>“And your crush. But that isn’t my fault.”</p><p>“You better not mess this up.”</p><p>“You don’t trust me that much?”</p><p>“Weirdly enough, I do trust you to save Beomgyu, at least,” Taehyun says with a shrug. Yeonjun gives him a curious look that makes him scoff again. “You look at him like he’s your whole world. There’s no way you’re not sparing him. Even for you.”</p><p>“What…” Yeonjun almost chokes on his coffee, spilling some drops on his beige uniform. “What the fuck?”</p><p>“Now, about Soobin…”</p><p>“No, shut up, Taehyun. I’m not even supposed to talk to you!” he stomps away from the glasses guy, feeling pretty much like he belongs there. Like he’s back to being a teenager whose concern is only about romance and not about saving the life of his crush.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>that's a lot of romance fillers for a supposedly action themed fics.............<br/></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. smile (just for a bit)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Soobin is back at school.</p><p>Beomgyu is not even aware of it until he enters the class, spotting the tall guy he’d recognize anywhere else. The air is suddenly constricted from his lungs, refusing to let him breathe properly, until he feels a nudge from behind that makes him stumble into the classroom.</p><p>“Oop, sorry—oh, it’s Beomgyu. Can you give this to Soobin?” the classmate—Hayoung hands him a stack of papers. “You know how scary he can be when he’s not in the mood, so I don’t want to try.”</p><p>The papers are stacked into his arms before he can react, and the girl already waltzes away from him. If Soobin is not in the mood, there’s a big chance he doesn’t want to see Beomgyu either; considering their last conversation did not end well.</p><p>With heavy steps, he still makes his way towards where Soobin is sitting, stopping by his desk. “Hey.”</p><p>No answer. Beomgyu bites his lower lip to swallow his disappointment and fear, trying to get back to his usual bouncy, pushy self that got him to be friend with the shy kid in the first place.</p><p>“I didn’t know you were coming back to the dorm. Should’ve told me… I could pick you up or something!”</p><p>Or not. There’s no sign that Soobin is even listening to him. Have they come to this state? Years of warm friendship turning into a cold shoulder just because of what happened that night. He waits a few minutes there, staring at Soobin’s dark locks to see if he would crumble under his stare and give in like he usually does. He doesn’t.</p><p>Beomgyu doesn’t always get everything he wants, after all.</p><p>With a sigh escaping his lips and a familiar stinging in his eyes, he finally places the stack of papers on top of Soobin’s desk, trying so hard not to block whatever the guy is reading. There is a slight jolt as the papers make a contact with Soobin’s hand, and then he looks up.</p><p>Seeing Soobin’s eyes makes him want to cry even more, realizing how much he has missed him.</p><p>“I miss you,” he blurts out, pinching himself in the thigh when he realizes what he said.</p><p>Soobin blinks up at him, then lifts his hands to take off his earbuds. “You were saying something?” he asks. Beomgyu’s soul is about to leave his body from the relief surging through it. At least the guy is not ignoring him, and he didn’t even hear the dumb thing he accidentally dropped.</p><p>“Nope. Just handing some papers, probably for your vice prez duty.”</p><p>He tears his gaze off Beomgyu to look at the papers, nodding and standing up. No trace of sadness from the last night they met can be spotted anywhere on Soobin’s face right now, and he is gentle as he pets Beomgyu’s head.</p><p>“Thank you. I was waiting for this.”</p><p>When Soobin walks away, Beomgyu occupies the seat with a long exhale heaved from his chest. It’s not much. His best friend is still not smiling to him or talking to him more than necessary, but it’s a start. It’s just another time in Beomgyu’s life when he is being selfish, not wanting something to be taken away. This time it’s Soobin that he holds back from leaving him, with the cost of hurting the male whenever he sees Beomgyu.</p><p>
  <em>“…but right now it really hurts to see you.”</em>
</p><p>Does he ever make a genuine relation? Beomgyu thinks as he lays his head down on Soobin’s desk, staring at the neat row of pens on top of it. He thinks of Taehyun, who he used to tutor him because he’s always behind in class. And then there’s Yeonjun, who he threatened into working for him, and ended up growing attached to. Now, it has to be Soobin, who probably can’t leave him out of the sense of responsibility he still holds for their parents.</p><p>The only genuine relationship he has is with Kai, and it’s stemmed from their mutual dislikes to each other. He can live without this one.</p><p>His contemplation comes to an end when his phone vibrates in his pocket. He lazily takes it out, finding a message from none other than Choi Yeonjun—who skipped classes again.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Can I steal you?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Nope.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Even for a date?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Beomgyu’s heart jumps at this one message, sending him into a short moment of brain freeze. When he gathers himself enough to reply, another message had popped out on his screen.</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>I have food.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Fine. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Only for the food.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>As soon as he sent the message, another one is sent to the chatroom. It’s an attached location this time. When he clicks on it, it’s just somewhere in the school ground, so it shouldn’t take long. There is still about ten minutes of the recess, and hopefully Yeonjun won’t be enough of an ass today to make him late to his next class.</p><p>Following the dot, Beomgyu finds his way across the soccer field, all the way past the decoration trees, and almost collides with a wall. If this is Yeonjun’s idea of a good date spot, he really has a bad taste.</p><p>Just as he is about to turn around and leave, his phone vibrates with another call. He answers it without letting it ring once more.</p><p>“Yah, what even is this? Are you pulling some kind of prank?” he nags.</p><p>“Nope,” Yeonjun laughs. “You have to jump over the wall, that’s where the good things are.”</p><p>Beomgyu stares at the grey wall before him and then at his cellphone as if it’s crazy. “No fucking way. Good bye!”</p><p>“Come on! You agreed to the date!” Yeonjun whines from the line.</p><p>“I didn’t agree to endanger my life!”</p><p>“You won’t! I’m right on the other side. Trust me, you’ll miss out if you don’t jump right now.”</p><p>He glares at the wall, hoping that his eyes can send a pair of laser blade so they can stab Yeonjun through the solid wall. That’s it, if the guy is really waiting for him outside of the wall. While contemplating, all he can think about is how he will regret this and how much of a bad news Choi Yeonjun is.</p><p>Pocketing his phone, he jumps up to grab the edge of the thick wall, putting as much strength as he could to his arms so that he can pull himself up. He can see the outside of the academy from the top of the wall. It’s a deserted area, since people who frequently come here usually are stuck inside in the dormitory or classes. Then he sees Yeonjun when he looks down. His dark blue hair looks unusually brighter under the light of the sun.</p><p>That’s when he realizes that he hasn’t seen the guy much under the sun.</p><p>“Jump down, dumbass. How are you planning to stay up there?” Yeonjun’s voice snaps him out of his small daze. He’s been staring for a little too long.</p><p>“Are you crazy? I’m going to break a leg!”</p><p>“Don’t shout!”</p><p>“You shouted first!”</p><p>Yeonjun rolls his eyes, not looking like he has some compassion for the poor guy stuck on top of the wall with his hands pathetically gripping onto it. Eventually, he spreads his arms, beckoning for Beomgyu to come at him. “Jump.”</p><p>“What?” he screams again.</p><p>“Someone’s coming. Jump quickly!”</p><p>The panic consumes him at the warning. Without bothering to see who’s really coming, he jumps off his little safe place on top of the wall, launching himself straight into Yeonjun’s arms.</p><p>It’s his fault, really, for thinking that Yeonjun will catch him. They end up on the pavement, with Yeonjun falling back on his butt and Beomgyu crashing onto him. The impact hurts, but he feels Yeonjun’s arms wrapped securely around him, and the complaints die down on his lips.</p><p>“Hi,” he smiles at the elder. “You’re crazy. I hope your wound is open again.”</p><p>“Ouch?” Yeonjun only laughs, petting his hip to urge him to get up.</p><p>As soon as he’s back on his feet, he’s facing a motorbike parked on the side of the street. A helmet is thrusts into his hand, just before Yeonjun mounts the vehicle. He only turns to see Beomgyu again when he noticed that he hasn’t moved an inch.</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Please tell me you didn’t steal this one.”</p><p>Yeonjun snorts. “This is actually mine. Hop on before I desert you here!”</p><p>Pouting, Beomgyu throws his leg over to get on the bike. He stares at Yeonjun’s board back for a second before sliding his arms around the lithe waist. “Where are we going?”</p><p>“Wouldn’t you like to know?” comes the guy’s annoying answer, before he kicks his leg off the pavement. Beomgyu purposely tightens his hold around Yeonjun’s waist just to irritate him.</p><p> </p><p>It’s safe to say that this is Beomgyu’s first date ever.</p><p>His first date is marked by the gentle summer breeze and a green lake spread before them. It’s a beautiful sight, good enough for Beomgyu to take a few pictures for memories. The spot they picked is also a nice one; under the shade of a big tree, with the presence of one or two leaves dropping into their food container sometimes.</p><p>Thinking that Yeonjun carried a bunch of food that he cooked himself inside that bag never failed to make Beomgyu smile. It doesn’t really fit the concept of this cold-blooded hitman with a dark past. Not to mention that the food actually tastes good.</p><p>“I refuse to believe that you cooked all of these,” Beomgyu says, stuffing a piece of kimbap into his cheek.</p><p>“So you’re saying that they’re <em>that </em>good.”</p><p>“Noh—“He makes a confused noise when Yeonjun cups his chin, squeezing his cheeks gently with his fingers and smiling like he enjoys toying with him.</p><p>It’s an adorable thought, something that he wouldn’t associate with Yeonjun before this. Even before having Beomgyu agreed on the date plan, the guy already cooked and prepared the food for him. He almost didn’t trust his eyes when Yeonjun started taking out food containers from his bag, presenting the boxed lunch, kimbap, and prettily sliced fruits. This makes Choi Yeonjun seems more <em>human</em> to him, more reachable.</p><p>“Why are you laughing again?” Yeonjun squints at him, lips pushed out into a sulky pout.</p><p>“Nothing. You’re just. Cute.”</p><p>“Say that again.”</p><p>“Yeonjun hyung is cute—<em>ah</em>!” he yelps when he’s pulled into a headlock.</p><p>It’s a playful one that won’t actually choke him, but the way Yeonjun is rubbing his cheek against his own almost makes his heart combust with how adorable it is. So, he taps the blanket they’re sitting on in a defeated stance.</p><p>The hold loosens around his neck, but he is not moving away. He rests his head on Yeonjun’s shoulder, leaning against his chest comfortably despite their awkward position. He might fall asleep like this. Stomach full and satisfied from the tasty food and Yeonjun’s thumb rubbing gently on the top of his hand.</p><p>“What are you going to do now that the whole thing with me has ended? Have you got more jobs?”</p><p>Yeonjun stiffens at the question, but Beomgyu didn’t get to question it when he feels a kiss pressed on the back of his earlobe, distracting him.</p><p> “Probably? I technically failed my last assignment, though, so it will take a while until I get another offer.”</p><p>“Good.”</p><p>“You’re that happy to ruin my career, huh?”</p><p>Beomgyu laughs, so the silence that comes after that is more noticeable. He can only hear the sound of Yeonjun breathing next to his ear for a moment until he speaks again.</p><p>“Why don’t you just stop?” the question slips out of his mouth before he could think.</p><p>“I can’t really stop. I trained so hard for this.”</p><p>“But you already got a lot of money. You can open a business and earn money from that. No need to kill anymore—“</p><p>“Beomgyu,” the warning in Yeonjun’s voice shuts him up right away. “Let’s not talk about this.”</p><p>Beomgyu shakes his head, pulling himself to sit up straight now and look at the latter.</p><p>“That time I killed someone, it changed me for the worst. I got worse nightmares, more sadistic ones where I was the perpetrator and not the one hurting. And I keep seeing the light leaving that person’s eyes in another dream,” he keeps going, unfazed by the fact that he is saying all these to someone who killed so many people in one week alone—under his command. “How do you sleep at night, with so many lives taken by your hands?”</p><p>The look in Yeonjun’s eyes is hard. Beomgyu would run away if he didn’t know better about the elder. If look could kill, he would be dead ten times in the span of a minute alone.</p><p>“What do you know, Choi Beomgyu?”</p><p>“What—“</p><p>“You wake up in the morning, and your only concern is about what to wear to a rich people event for the day. You have no right to judge me for trying to stay alive. I <em>had</em> to do it,” he says. His breathing picked up in pace. “And after you do it once, you can’t stop. One dead face haunts you, and only once you lost count of your kills that you don’t bother anymore.”</p><p>“Killing more is the answer?” Beomgyu frowns. “It sounds to me like you’re trying to justify yourself here. You only stop getting haunted because you don’t pay attention to their faces anymore when you take their life.”</p><p>Yeonjun shoots him an incredulous look, just before he breaks into an awfully loud laughter. His face is cold when he stops. Eyes staring straight into Beomgyu’s. “Funny how I remember each of them even until now. Including those people you told me to kill when it wasn’t necessary.”</p><p>That, and the icy stare thrown at him, makes Beomgyu shut up. He looks down on his lap, fingers fiddling with his bracelet. “I’m sorry,” he whispers.</p><p>“I will stop getting haunted when I stop killing, only because they will put a bullet in my head. That’s what they do to traitors,” Yeonjun keeps going, and he has to squeeze his eyes shut in hope to block all of these. “I’m doing this to survive. Sorry that some of us have to struggle this hard to survive when you’ve always had it easy.”</p><p>“I SAID I’M SORRY!” he snaps, voice rising into a half-scream. Yeonjun’s eyes widen for a split second, but Beomgyu pays no mind to it as he crawls back to the elder. He stands on his knees, wrapping his arms around Yeonjun’s neck and pulling his face against his chest so he can hug his head. “I’m so sorry that you had to think about it again. I didn’t know that you were suffering.”</p><p>“I’m not suffering,” Yeonjun mumbles into his shirt.</p><p>“Then why are you crying?”</p><p>The elder frantically pulls away, bringing his hands to feel his cheeks only to glare at him when he feels no wetness under his fingers. Beomgyu laughs, not even resisting when he’s shoved away.</p><p>The sky already turns orange from the setting sun, and then there is an announcement that the place is closing in a few minutes. Thankfully, that’s the thing that truly breaks the earlier tensed atmosphere. Beomgyu really doesn’t want to ruin the memories of his first date by adding a fight into it.</p><p>Once the empty food containers are packed into the bag again, Yeonjun slings it over his shoulder, reaching his free hand out for Beomgyu to take. He expected them to walk back to the parking lot, but he ends up being guided deeper into the tourist spot. Another announcement can be heard from the speaker, and Beomgyu’s frown deepened as he’s led further away from both the lake and the exit gate.</p><p>“Aren’t we leaving? I’m really not in the mood to be arrested with you.”</p><p>Yeonjun throws a look over his shoulder. The boyish smile on his lips is illuminated by the warm orange shine from the setting sun, and Beomgyu hates how a single smile can make his heart settle.</p><p>“I’m in the mood to break some laws with you, though.”</p><p>Yeonjun really is a bad news.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>“You should’ve just told me that this building is still open until night!”</p><p>Yeonjun rolls his eyes. His date can be noisy when he wants to. It’s just his luck that Yeonjun has grown to like his voice and the sound of his laughter, or else he would have lost patience and deserted him right there. It’s also impossible in this scenario because of the tiny smile that’s permanently etched on Beomgyu’s lips whenever he steals a glance at him. He looks like he’s genuinely enjoying the date, and Yeonjun would punch himself in the face if he takes that away from the guy.</p><p>But still.</p><p>“Stop that,” he spits.</p><p>“Stop what?”</p><p>“Smiling like that.”</p><p>Beomgyu arches a brow at that, but pays him no mind, judging from how his smile grows brighter. This room they just entered is already bright, and Beomgyu just makes it worse for Yeonjun’s poor eyes. He is lifting the coffee can that they bought earlier from a vending machine downstairs, showing it off to the hitman like he hasn’t just finished his own.</p><p>“You got me coffee. I’m happy!”</p><p>“Funny. You have like unlimited amount of money right now, and you’re happy over a can of coffee,” Yeonjun scoffs, finally prying his gaze away from Beomgyu’s smile as the elevator’s door opens before them. He loops his arm around the younger’s waist to pull him aside and let people walk past them before they could step in.</p><p>“People don’t really buy stuff for me, so this is new,” Beomgyu looks down at the coffee with his lips pursed in thought. “I’ve never gone on a date either.”</p><p>“That was really your first kiss, huh?”</p><p>“Shut up!”</p><p>Yeonjun laughs. “What was it with Soobin, then? Those few days after the funeral, you two would go out every day doing teenager things.”</p><p>“Huh…” Beomgyu throws him a confused look.</p><p>“I stalked you, idiot.”</p><p>That day feels like something that happens a year ago with how many things happening in the span of a few weeks alone.</p><p>“It’s different with Soobin since he is a family,” Beomgyu says. Lips spreading into a teasing smile as he looks up at him again. “We already met before you tried to kill me, huh? Why didn’t you just shoot me while I was busy trying to score in that basketball game?”</p><p>“Yeah, I asked myself a million times, too. Now, stop questioning me and just look at this,” Yeonjun cups his cheeks, making him turn his head to look at the big window next to them.</p><p>The elevator is a big one with too much space for them since there is no one else. The walls are made of glasses, letting them see the view from outside as the cube ascends diagonally. As they are lifted higher from the ground, there are more things to see from the city. The lake, the blanket of green grasses and trees in the city forest, the building lights twinkling in the darkness of the night.</p><p>It makes such a beautiful view that he can see the sparks from those lights transferred into Beomgyu’s eyes when he looks at the younger again.</p><p>“What is this place?” he asks.</p><p>“An observatory,” Yeonjun says just as the elevator stops and the door dings open. “It’s nothing much. You can only stand there and see the city, so…”</p><p>“Nothing much? This is perfect.”</p><p>Beomgyu is not even looking at him anymore. He is already stepping out from the elevator, making his way into the vast room of the observatory.</p><p>There are not many people left in the place, as it’s usually packed only during the day when you can see everything more clearly. Yeonjun likes the night views better when he can’t see all the humans and the busy city people or tourist. Late at night, it’s just him there, alone with the blinking city lights and moonlight.</p><p>This is one of the few things Yeonjun appreciate in life aside from his passion for his career. Although it feels counterproductive to just stand before the transparent wall and gaze at the night view, it calms him down from the days full of adrenaline and thrill. Anyone else would sneer at him for being superficial, but he finds nothing wrong to take a few minutes to just waste your time staring at beautiful things.</p><p>This time, he is not exactly looking at the city. What interests him more is the awed look in Beomgyu’s face, as he puts both his hands on the glass wall.</p><p>“How did you discover this pretty place? I thought you only know dirty rooftops and boring stakeouts. But hey, technically the concept is not that different. It’s just fancier.”</p><p>Yeonjun scoffs. “Oh yeah? Wait until you see this.”</p><p>The blonde blinks at him as he takes his hand and starts guiding him towards the tool placed near the centre of the wide glass window. It’s a giant sized binoculars that let you see even the people on the street. He doubts they can see much because of the darkness, but Beomgyu is still excited as he climbs on the stool, peering into the lenses.</p><p>“It’s amazing!” he exclaims, followed by more awed noises and comments every time he finds something interesting.</p><p>It’s so fun to watch, how Beomgyu just loves and enjoys things in the purest way. He can see the can of coffee poking out of the pocket of his uniform pants, knowing that he is not drinking it just to keep it for a little longer. And he’s actually enjoying the little things Yeonjun shows him in this date.</p><p>“I used to be scared of heights,” he says spontaneously, avoiding to lock eyes with the latter when he feels Beomgyu throws a look at him.</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“My mentor brought me here and made me look down through this, and then he shoved me against that window to make me look down. It was traumatizing,” Yeonjun laughs, remembering the early days of his training that caused him so much pain and fear, only for them to be a laughing material after years. “He kept saying that this was to help me get used to rooftops and high buildings, but he was nice enough to bring me to a beautiful place just for that purpose.”</p><p>He feels a hand on his head, petting him gently. It almost irks him, if only it’s not for the gentle eyes peering down at him. “You said it was nothing, but this place got a significant meaning to you, huh?”</p><p>“There’s still not much to do here.”</p><p>“There are a lot to do, if you want,” Beomgyu turns around to face him. The stool wobbles under his movement, and Yeonjun is quick to settle his hands on the younger’s waist to not let him stumble back. “But I’m okay just to spend time with you like this.”</p><p>“You’re surprisingly low maintenance. Easy to please.”</p><p>Beomgyu huffs at that, hopping off the stool right into Yeonjun’s arms which are ready to catch him. He keeps his arms loosely looped around him even as he’s already standing on his feet, smiling up at him.</p><p>“And you? Cooking, and then being a hopeless romantic showing me this beautiful views. What else are you hiding from me, Choi Yeonjun?”</p><p>“Oh, you don’t want to find out,” he smiles, settling his hand on the small of Beomgyu’s back as he leans in to steal a kiss from the pair of parted lips. “I might sweep you right off your feet.”</p><p>“Don’t think so highly of yourself.”</p><p>“On a more serious note, you will find out more about me soon, and you’ll find something you hate from me.”</p><p>“As if I haven’t seen enough of those already.”</p><p>Yeonjun laughs. “Seriously. When the time comes, what are you going to do?”</p><p>“I’m not sure, actually. Kiss me again?”</p><p>He gives Beomgyu a confused look, but not questioning it as Beomgyu slides his arms up his shoulders, looping them behind his nape to pull him down in a kiss. It’s a softer one this time. Slow and deep, as if they have all the time in the world and Yeonjun is not doing this in their borrowed time. The perfect start of this blooming relationship is an illusion that he tries so hard to build, and as he kisses Beomgyu there, he refuses to remember the fact that he has to let it crumble down into dust when his agency wills him to.</p><p>For now, at least for a bit, let him have the privilege of falling in love with Choi Beomgyu.</p><p>It’s not hard to do that when Beomgyu is looking up at him with that smitten look again. Soft eyes twinkling under the artificial light of the room.</p><p>“I’ll just remember this feeling. How much I like you when you’re not trying to kill me.”</p><p>Yeonjun smiles, knocking his forehead gently against Beomgyu’s. “Then you must have liked me for a long time.”</p><p>And it won’t last for a long time after this.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Because after the date, Yeonjun’s presence is demanded in the agency. He is out of his borrowed time, ready to break off the illusion anytime soon.</p><p>Still, it pains him as he drops Beomgyu back at the entrance gate of the academy, staring at that tall gate which right now just reminds him of far apart their worlds are. It’s tanged right now by a connection that will end up choking one of them to death.</p><p>“Why can’t you stay in the dorm? You’re going to leave anytime soon, so might as well start packing up your things now, right?” he reasons, tugging on the sleeve of Yeonjun’s leather jacket.</p><p>“Ouch? You want me to leave that soon?”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s not like you can’t just steal me away anytime you like.”</p><p>“I might steal you again tomorrow… but only if you give me a kiss,” Yeonjun says with a teasing grin throwns at the younger, who goes red at the suggestion. It’s cute how Beomgyu is still so flustered after kissing for several times already.</p><p>“I can’t allow you order me around like that!” he huffs, folding his arms across his chest and averting his gaze somewhere else. It doesn’t last for long as his gaze drops to Yeonjun’s hand. “Oh right, give me that.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Hand.”</p><p>“What, am I a dog?” he looks at him, puzzled at first, but letting Beomgyu take his hand anyway. As the hand is lifted, he is just noticing what Beomgyu is looking at. The leather bracelet is still sitting around his wrist. He’s already so used to having it that he forgot what it can actually do.</p><p>As he watches Beomgyu tinker with the accessories, he noticed that it’s loosening around his wrist, eventually ends up lying on top of his palm.</p><p>“Sadly, you’re not my dog anymore, but you can still keep your collar, doggie.”</p><p>Yeonjun scoffs. “What am I now? Your boyfriend?”</p><p>The smug smile on Beomgyu’s face slowly dissipated as the flush is taking over his cheeks again, even under the minimum lighting of the street light. Before he can combust from having too much heat on his face, Yeonjun reaches out to pet his head.</p><p>“Okay, just go inside quickly before you get in trouble for curfew.”</p><p>“Alright!” he puffs his cheeks out. “Good night, hyung.”</p><p>“Really no kiss for me?”</p><p>Beomgyu returns his flirty smile with an impassive look, and he expects a string of curses aimed for him already. In the end, his gaze softens as he drops his gaze. “Maybe tomorrow. If you turn up at the class.”</p><p>He runs towards the gate after all, leaving Yeonjun to stare at his bouncy hair moving from his little waddling. He’s just too cute for his own good. Too bad he won’t be able to get that kiss tomorrow.</p><p> </p><p>Yeonjun loses his smile as soon as he rides away from the school, knowing that this is the last time he is going to be there. He should be happy that he is finally dropping the whole high-schooler act. No more detentions or playing pretense with kids younger than him. No more acting like he respects those teachers. He is going back to his life.</p><p>His life is here, in the agency where his loyalty lies.</p><p>The corridor is deserted as he walks towards his boss’ room. His heavy footsteps in this part of the building is something familiar to him, after the countless visits he paid to make sure that he lands a spot as one of Taehyung’s favourites.</p><p>He really had gone through a lot to climb up the ladder of his career, and there is no way someone like him would throw it away for a merely pretty high schooler whose head costs a fortune.</p><p>“You’re late,” Taehyung’s voice greets him as he steps into the room.</p><p>“Sorry. I was asleep.”</p><p>“Still got time to sleep when I planned everything for you, huh?” the elder scoffs. “This is why you can never reach my spot, kid.”</p><p>Yeonjun grits his teeth, jaws tensed, but not saying anything to avoid more confrontations. Taehyung is already disappointed enough in him, and it will take a while for him to regain his trust. That, is considering he is successful in this mission in the end. Or else, there is no way of going back as Daniel, or even hoping to see another day.</p><p>“This is really taking too much effort for a single kid, but since our client demands the execution to be done under supervision, I will have to give you a hand.”</p><p><em>Fuck.</em> <em>There is really no way out of this. </em></p><p>“We will bring them <em>here</em>. Our lion’s den. That way they will really be defenceless and we get all the upper hand. Once he’s here, we can give a show for our customer,” Taehyung makes a gun shape with his fingers, pointing it towards Yeonjun. “Game over.”</p><p>“I’m taking them here?”</p><p>Taehyung laughs. “Not that part, sweetie. That’s too easy for you. The extraction will be done by some people in our team, your job is just to wait here and finish them.”</p><p>“That’s it?”</p><p>“That, and make sure to stop that little traitor when he comes to stop us.”</p><p>Yeonjun frowns. “Why do you think he will come?”</p><p>“Actually, I’ll make sure that he knows where to come,” he says with a lazy smile on his lips. “Just so we can kill two birds in with a stone. In this case, three. Luckily, our client doesn’t mind.”</p><p>As he says that, Taehyung takes a hold of his laptop and rotates its position so it is facing Yeonjun. He bites the inside of his cheeks to hide his surprise as the person who gave him this job shows up on the screen. The man is wearing a neat suit just like last time, but this time, his face is not covered by a mask.</p><p>“I believe this is the first time we met,” the person says, voice broken as it comes out of the speaker. “Can I trust you to not mess this up, Daniel?”</p><p>Yeonjun smirks at that. Rich people telling him what to do does not sit well with his principles, but this guy is paying him, and apparently it means that he is the guy’s dog as for now.</p><p>The only thing that bugs him is the way this middle aged man in suit reminds him of someone. All this time, they were certain that the person hiring him was Choi Jongho, that they don’t have any suspicion for other people, but this person might be someone who is close to Beomgyu’s family, too.</p><p>It doesn’t matter, though, since his duty right now is just to say whatever his client wants him to say.</p><p>“Absolutely, sir.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. playing (chase)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The morning is too quiet to be normal.</p><p>It’s a sunny day, perfect weather for the PE teacher to make them go on the field for some tests. Nobody tells the devil that it’s unhealthy to run back and forth on the basketball field under the scorching sun. Before the end of the class, Beomgyu is already sprawled under the side of a big tree in the lawn. A hand thrown over his face.</p><p>He is already annoyed that Yeonjun didn’t turn up in class, and then he didn’t see Soobin and Taehyun either. Everyone has successfully avoided the PE torture session, and nobody bothered to ask him to tag along.</p><p>“Are you dead?”</p><p>That voice. Even in his lightheaded state, Beomgyu can recognize it. He refuses to lift his hand to look at the annoying face of the owner.</p><p>“Yes I am.”</p><p>“Good, though it’s disappointing that you can still talk when you’re dead.”</p><p>There’s a laughter, and then some shuffling of shoes, until he feels a presence occupying the spot next to him. He groans in dismay, finally dropping his hand to glare up at the guy who is sitting next to his head. It’s none other than Huening Kai.</p><p>“Why are you here? Don’t you have some studying to do?”</p><p>“It’s recess,” he says with a shrug.</p><p>Beomgyu shoots up to sit, intending to leave the guy there, only to have his head spinning again as soon as he sits down. He has to shut his eyes for a few seconds, feeling the way Kai is staring at him from the side. It’s not worth it to crawl all the way back to class just to avoid this person.</p><p>“Why do you hate me so much?” Kai asks again, taking advantage of his weak state that he can’t possibly run away from this.</p><p>He takes a moment to let his eyes clear up again, looking at the latter who is still staring at him. “Why do you hate me?”</p><p>“I don’t hate you.”</p><p>“Bullshit. We’ve been at each other’s throats for years.”</p><p>The vibration coming from his gym pants’ pocket takes his attention away from the guy, finally exhaling a long breath as he’s relieved from the pain of having to engage in that awkward staring session. A smile instantly grows on his lips as he sees the sender of the message. It’s Yeonjun.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Come out for a bit?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Let’s meet at that 7-11 </em>
</p><p>
  <em>a block away from school.</em>
</p><p>He’s itching to tell the guy that he can’t order him around, just to be bratty, but then this is also a perfect excuse for him to avoid the conversation. Not listening to anything Kai is saying, he gets up from the ground, brushing some dirt off his pants while he tries to feel more impending headache. No headache.</p><p>“I have to go,” he says simply.</p><p>Kai frowns at him, following as he walks towards the gate instead of back to the school building. “Where are you going? Can you even leave the school without supervision?”</p><p>Good question.</p><p>Stopping on his track, he scans the taller guy from head to toe. He nods to himself before untying his gym jacket from around his waist, throwing it towards the puzzled guy. “Wear the hood, I might need you to get past security.”</p><p>“It’s really not a good idea.”</p><p>“Well, I don’t need you that much, actually. I can just pay them,” Beomgyu throws his hands in defeat, realizing his mistake to even consider getting Kai to help him. He turns around again to march towards the exit. There is no way he is going to beg Huening Kai.</p><p>A little run coming towards him tells him that it’s not necessary.</p><p>“You can’t go out without guardian,” the security tells him, as they always do countless of times in the past where he and Soobin would sneak out to buy some snacks they can’t get from inside the academy.</p><p>“Soobin’s my bodyguard. He’s certified, check on your list,” he says, gesturing towards Kai who is standing by his side. Even without the hood over his head, the security guard probably won’t catch them anyway. They won’t be bothered to learn the names and faces of all the students.</p><p>The living proof is right in front of them. The security lady just scans through the list of name, checking his and his guardian’s names, before waving him off towards the gate.</p><p>“Be back by the end of recess.”</p><p>“Got it! Thank you so much,” he gives a quick bow towards them. Soon enough, he’s already making a little run out of the gate, Kai on his tail.</p><p>“It’s really dangerous to be out of school like this,” he says.</p><p>“I’ve snuck out with Soobin a lot of times already. Can’t believe you’ve never done it after years of living here,” Beomgyu rolls his eyes, irritated by how the guy is suddenly acting like some goody two shoes.</p><p>“It’s different now!”</p><p>“How? Just go back first if you’re so scared then!”</p><p>Kai picks up the speed of his steps so he can block Beomgyu’s step, making him almost bump against a solid chest. He glares at the taller male, hands on his hips.</p><p>“Listen to me, Choi Beomgyu. I don’t care about you, but it concerns me, so I need to tell you.”</p><p>“What are you on about?” he snaps, already thinking of 1000 ways of getting rid of Kai so he won’t waste more of his precious time.</p><p>Before he can execute any of them, a minivan stops by their side on the side of the street. His anger subdues a little as he pries his gaze away from Kai, just before it turns into fear when a couple males in black step out of the vehicle. This doesn’t look good no matter how you look at it.</p><p>“Oh shit,” he can hear Kai whispers from his side.</p><p>A hand grabs his arm, tugging him who’s still stunned to run along the street. Huening Kai is thinking faster than him, pulling him along as he runs, and Beomgyu hates himself for not listening to him.</p><p>It’s a scene that only happens in a movie. There’s no way it’s real. The way those people chase after them through the street full of people, as if it’s so easy to abduct a couple of high school students in a broad daylight. Judging from what happened to him the past few weeks, he really shouldn’t rule out these things to happen in his life.</p><p>“Faster, faster!” Kai chants, still tugging on his hand.</p><p>“I’m trying!”</p><p>If it’s not for the hold on his hand, he would probably stumble on his feet like some idiots in horror movies, or just give up completely because this seems like a hopeless case. So many people on the street, yet no one makes a move to help them.</p><p>At that moment, he realizes again, how he has relied on Soobin and Yeonjun way too much.</p><p>The fear is pounding in his chest along with his heartbeat, causing his chest to tighten from lack of breath. Still, he wills his legs to run faster, knowing that there is no way he can defeat these guys with the help of another sheltered boy.</p><p>It’s just a game for those people, and the chase is ending quickly. Beomgyu feels the hope drained from his body as his shirt is caught from behind, before his body is slammed into the pavement. In his panicked state, he can hear Kai’s high pitched scream, mildly regretting his decision to bring him along since he has involved the innocent kid in the mess of his life.</p><p>Another blink. He can still see passerbys around him, and then a sharp pain on his nape sends him to a total darkness.</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>The dreaded day has finally come.</p><p>Yeonjun is not involved much in the early plan of this proud triple-kill introduced by Taehyung. He only had to text a location to Beomgyu, and his job for the extraction is done. They do not doubt his ability to lure the target out of safety with a single text, which means that they probably know just how close the two of them are. What they don’t know is that none of them is an act.</p><p>Judging from how Beomgyu would willingly jump over a wall for him, he knows that the guy would take the bait.</p><p>“It’s time.”</p><p>Taehyung’s voice makes him flinch out of his deep thoughts. He blinks at the elder, not expecting it to happen so quickly, and that Taehyung would take the matter into his own hands. He is already standing up and walking towards the door while Yeonjun is sitting there all puzzled.</p><p>“Already?”</p><p>“One of the little lambs caught in a trap,” he whistles, beckoning for Yeonjun to follow him. “Didn’t think he’d be this stupid, but hey, that’s the reason he wasn’t cut out for this job.”</p><p>Based on his words, Yeonjun can only assume that it’s not Beomgyu. His question is answered as they enter another room. This one is cleared of all the tables, leaving the pristine white room with tiled floor and a very angry little man sitting in the centre of it. His face is bruised and his cargo pants are torn in some places.</p><p>Taehyun probably didn’t imagine himself sitting there in the mercy of Kim Taehyung himself. Or even at all. It’s nice for once, seeing the proud look in his face replaced by anger and despair.</p><p>“Our little traitor. You didn’t expect to hide from us for this long, huh?”</p><p>“Let me go!” Taehyun grits out, tugging on the restraint around his wrists that are tied up behind his back.</p><p>“We would probably let you live for a little longer, if only you didn’t act all heroic and try to save your friends. What did it gain you, huh? Nothing but a red target on your face.”</p><p>Yeonjun is staying behind as he observes, leaning back on the wall next to the door and shutting his eyes as a heavy boot makes a contact with Taehyun’s cheek. There’s a soft groan as his face hits the floor, followed by a muffled whimper as the older hitman crouches down to grab his hair.</p><p>“You won’t get away with this one,” he says in an eerily calm tone. It’s amazing how he still has the audacity to glare up at Taehyung and not beg for his life. “Choi Beomgyu is not someone you can mess around with”</p><p>“These kids are really overestimating themselves,” Taehyung clicks his tongue, losing his patience to deal with the guy. He takes his gun from under his suit jacket, dangling it off his fingers. “How many bullets do you think a traitor deserves?” Now, he is really going to make it painful, judging by the look in his eyes as he glances at Yeonjun.</p><p>“Hyung-nim, can you do me a favour and let me handle the kid?” he asks instead, swallowing as the latter throws him a sharp gaze.</p><p>“And why would I let you do that?”</p><p>“You see, this little brat shot me once. I just want to pay him back for that.”</p><p>Taehyung stares at him for a few seconds before his loud laughter fills the room. He then stands up from his squatting position, nodding in a satisfied manner.</p><p>“That’s right. You kids and your beef. It goes a long way, I’m telling you.”</p><p>It’s pitiful, really. Taehyun is just a high-schooler who is trapped in this messy world against his will. But someone needs to take the blame, and Yeonjun is not going down for this.</p><p>His footsteps are loud in the silent room, stopping right before Taehyun’s face.</p><p>Taehyung is already standing up, sneering at the two. “I’ll let you two settle your scores then.”</p><p>Since he owes the guy one for tending to his wound last time, Yeonjun figured that the least he can do is to make this a clean kill. No pain. Just a deafening bang, and Taehyun won’t feel anything anymore, not even the deep hatred he is now shooting at him through his gaze.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” he says at the guy, unlocking his gun and pointing it down at his head. “This is just how our world works.”</p><p>Taehyun opens his mouth, probably to spit curses at him. His gun is faster, though. The sound rips through the room, and blood is everywhere on the floor. On his boots.</p><p>On his conscience. If he has one.</p><p>“One down, two to go,” Taehyung says from behind him. His footsteps are leaving the room a moment after.</p><p>Yeonjun doesn’t spare a look at his latest kill, holstering his gun on the belt fastened around his thigh before he swivels around to follow his boss. Now, onto a harder kill.</p><p>This is just how his world works.</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>When the darkness in his head clears out, Beomgyu expected to see the sunlight and the shade of tree above him. He expects, desperately, to wake up from a bad dream because of the extraneous PE session. Instead, he wakes up to another darkness. The room he is placed in is totally dark, without any gaps to let some lights in.</p><p>He is sitting down on a chair, with his arms tied up on his back. It brings him back to that night he spent in the same position, but with his uncle across of him.</p><p>With this uncertain darkness around him, he can feel more fear building inside him. Even worse, this time he is not drown in the anguish of having his best friend wounded in action, so it’s easier for him to be drowned in his panic thoughts, all the possibilities of him being slaughtered in this place.</p><p>There are just so many times he can buy his time out of death that many people wish for him.</p><p>“Huening Kai?” he tries to call out, hoping that the guy is still alive and in this room somewhere with him. “Kai. Are you here?” he tries again, louder this time.</p><p>There is a movement behind him, making him realize that his chair is pushed up against another chair, back to back. He wiggles his bound hands a little, sighing in relief when he touches another set of bound hands.</p><p>“Beomgyu? You’re alive?” comes Kai’s voice, which makes him burst into laughter despite how grim the question is.</p><p>“Not for long, I guess.”</p><p>They stay quiet for a bit after that. Kai is probably still gathering his consciousness, or questioning his fate on why he could be annoying a friend one minute and then the next minute he ends up in a dark room with the said friend.</p><p>It’s a little amusing even for Beomgyu who is still engulfed by his fear, the fact that he is trapped in this place with his sworn enemy since childhood.</p><p>“Beomgyu? I’m so sorry.”</p><p>“What are you talking about? I dragged you along into this,” he sighs. “I hope they would spare you at least.”</p><p>“No, I wanted to talk to you about this before we were…” Kai sighs, moving his hands to knock them against Beomgyu’s. “Like this. I should’ve told you a long time ago.”</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>“My dad hired a hitman to kill you.”</p><p>Beomgyu freezes at that. He knows that 7 people were hired to kill him, even his uncle, but hearing it from Kai like this makes it feel even more real. Not to mention that he apparently missed one hitman to kill.</p><p>“It won’t be the first time, I guess. I’ve been close to death several times.”</p><p>“I think he’s serious, though. I connected the dots and the voice I heard from my dad’s office. It’s that new student’s.”</p><p>“Who?” Beomgyu frowns.</p><p>“Choi Yeonjun, is that his name?”</p><p>So it’s really not his uncle. He should have started to get suspicious after the whole thing with Jongho, since there was a possibility of Yeonjun not being hired by him among all of the other men. But he was occupied by the whole thing with the funeral, Soobin, and then the distraction from Yeonjun himself.</p><p>Beomgyu wonders if it means that the guy has hired someone else, because there is no way Yeonjun was the one who captured him like this. That’s not how Yeonjun works.</p><p>
  <em>Right?</em>
</p><p>“Is that why you tried to warn me last time?”</p><p>“And I tried to stop you from coming to that event too, put something in Soobin’s drink, but you ended up going alone and I thought you would die. When I saw Yeonjun went into that restroom that night…,” so it was him, the one who made Taehyun sick, and also the one who stalked him at the hotel that night. The one who made him fear for his life. “I’m a coward. You could’ve died, but thankfully you didn’t.”</p><p>“It’s not your fault, really. Yeonjun wouldn’t…” he trails off, not so sure anymore at this point.</p><p>“Today too… because I overheard my dad planning this attack. I just didn’t hear the details. I should’ve stopped you from leaving the school… Why do I keep on messing up?”</p><p>He is not even listening anymore. Dread settles in his gut like a stone, weighing him down and shooting up on his throat, making him want to throw up at the thought that just pops out into his head.</p><p>“And Yeonjun?” he asks in a whisper.</p><p>“He was in the call, yes. That’s how I really confirmed it’s him.”</p><p>Beomgyu bites his lip, leaning his head back to rest against Kai’s shoulder as he feels the rest of his strength drains off his body. It just doesn’t make sense to him. If Yeonjun is still in contract with Kai’s dad, he must be planning everything since his uncle’s funeral so Beomgyu won’t be suspicious of him. All those moments they shared. The dates. The kisses. All those might happen just to distract him.</p><p>The worst thing is that Yeonjun executed it perfectly.</p><p>Blinking back a stinging tear on his eyes, Beomgyu tries to think of something else. At least Kai would be safe if it’s his dad, right? They should check first before killing him, probably thought that he would be with Soobin when he left the school. That’s also the only good thing that comes out of this—the fact that Soobin won’t have to be trapped with him in this situation.</p><p>He really deserves the best.</p><p>“Kai,” he calls out again, shaking himself out of the thoughts. “Why do you care whether I die or not?”</p><p>“Stop asking that. Is it not the right thing to do?”</p><p>“No… it’s just. You hate me, so you must be happy that your dad wanted to get rid of me. Why do you want me to live?” he asks.</p><p>He feels a shifting behind him, and then Kai’s head leans against his own with a thud.</p><p>“Don’t know. I guess it’d be boring without my best enemy around.”</p><p>Beomgyu can hear the smile in Kai’s voice, and he laughs. “You’re so dumb. This is why I hate you.”</p><p>“You hated me for years just because you think I’m dumb?” Kai gasps incredulously.</p><p>“That, and because you kept calling me pretty when we were kids.”</p><p>“Oh my god, you are impossible.”</p><p>It’s ironic, how the first time Beomgyu can talk to this guy without having the urge to choke him is when they are both strapped to chairs. This is probably the last conversation he will ever have if Kai is right about the plan being carried out, yet he doesn’t feel any hatred for the guy, especially not because of what his father is doing.</p><p>They are both kids that are trapped in their parents’ business politics, and in that way, they share something. Beomgyu just wishes that they could’ve been better friends. Or better enemies.</p><p>He squeezes his eyes shut when the place is suddenly brightened up by lights. They are not alone in the room anymore, and instantly, the short moment of relief he gathered from the conversation with Kai dissipated into the air. Taking a deep breath, his fingers closed around Kai’s. If this is the last thing he is going to do alive, then so be it.</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t you think you’ve kept those two in the basement for too long?”</p><p>Taehyung pries his gaze away from his computer screen, directing his gaze towards Yeonjun in a glare. “You think you have the right to ask that when you took so damn long only for me to do your work for you?”</p><p>That makes Yeonjun shut up instantly, wetting his lips as a nervous gesture. He can hear voices from the screen, conversations coming from the camera they installed at the basement of the building where they kept the two. He only caught some snippets on the conversations. They mainly consist of some shouted questions and Beomgyu shouting back.</p><p>A sound of slap makes his jaws clench. That kid should’ve learned when to keep his mouth shut. Not all hitmen in this agency is as lenient as he is when it comes to dealing with Choi Beomgyu’s bratty attitude.</p><p>Getting curious, Yeonjun gets up from his seat on the sofa, making his way to stand behind the elder so he can peer into the screen. There he can see Beomgyu tied up behind someone else—Soobin? So the guy is that useless, after all. He is no match for <em>the</em> Choi Yeonjun if he could get caught by some rookie hitmen.</p><p>Someone from the agency is sitting across of him, probably a rookie, judging from how she is getting the extra job that doesn’t involve any fun or killing. She doesn’t seem to do a good job either. Other than that slap she delivered, she is not putting any pressure on Beomgyu to answer her questions. The guy is glaring at her with no trace of fear in his eyes.</p><p>Most importantly, Beomgyu is not spilling any details about their deal, even at gun point.</p><p>It makes Yeonjun feel sick in the stomach, imagining the way Beomgyu would look at him if he knows that Yeonjun is the one who made this happen. The only time that will be happening is when Yeonjun is sent down to put a bullet in his head, and he is not excited about finishing his task for once.</p><p>“Why do we need to question him again?” he dares himself to question once more after hearing the kind of questions the rookie is shouting. They are mainly about how Beomgyu obtained the information about the agency and who he hired to do the dirty job. “It’s that traitor who did everything anyway.”</p><p>“There might be a fun twist, you’ll never know.”</p><p>The guy is looking at Yeonjun from the reflection on the mirror he placed on his desk, and Yeonjun just <em>knows</em> that the suspicion towards him is not all gone.</p><p>He is being tested.</p><p>“Can’t I just go down and shoot him?”</p><p>“Not yet. Why don’t you just enjoy the game? It’s not like you have anything better to do.”</p><p>Yeonjun grunts at that, leaning in closer to see the screen better. Upon a closer look, he can see that Beomgyu has blood on his lips, and weirdly enough the other guy tied up with him is not saying anything. He is wearing the school’s gym jacket, but no matter how he looks at him, Yeonjun doesn’t see any resemblance of the guy with Soobin.</p><p>A scoff from him gathered the attention from the elder in the form of a sharp glare.</p><p>“Hyung-nim, I think I found your fun twist, but it might not be very pleasant to you.”</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>He points at the screen. “That’s not Choi Soobin. Your men got the wrong one.”</p><p>A smug smile tugs his lips as he is more certain now about the identity of the other guy. If only they would let him go on the street and finish his job quickly without all these complications, this wouldn’t have happened.</p><p>“Huh, those kids look the same to me. Let’s just kill this one anyway and find that damn bodyguard some other day.”</p><p>“Alright. It’s one of the rich kids anyway, Huening Kai or something.”</p><p>Taehyung visibly freezes at the mention of the name. “Did you say Huening?”</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>He looks like he is thinking hard for a moment before he picks up his cellphone. As the line goes through, Yeonjun watches the rookie in the video reaches for her phone to pick it up.</p><p>“Peach, can you take a picture of that other loser? Send it to me.”</p><p>What kind of hitman pick something as tacky as <em>Peach</em> as a codename?</p><p>The girl moves from the seat across of Beomgyu to look at the other guy. A scream can be heard when she pulls on his hair to get a better look of his face, and then Taehyung’s phone dings with an incoming text. The guy curses as the picture shows up on his phone.</p><p>“Damn it. Don’t touch that one, you understand? I’ll personally end you if something happens to that guy.”</p><p>
  <em>“But why—HEY!” </em>
</p><p>Everything happens so fast on the screen that none of them can barely react or even breathe. While Peach is distracted with the call and Huening Kai, Beomgyu has shot up from his seat, his hands already free from the bound, and they are grabbing his chair to smash it against her face.</p><p>The line goes dead as the phone clatters on the floor along with the gun. Yeonjun can see Beomgyu hesitate for a second before picking the gun, saying something to Kai who appears to yell at him. And then he is gone from the frame.</p><p>While those things unfolded on the room a few levels down in the basement, everything goes silent in this room. It’s dumbfounding for both of them that a spoiled kid can cause so many troubles for them even on the day he is supposed to <em>finally</em> be assassinated.</p><p>The basement room is silent too, leaving a struggling Kai trying to escape his bound, and the rookie hitman who lays unconscious on the ground.</p><p>What seems like a perpetual silence is broken by Taehyung’s loud laughter. It snaps Yeonjun out of his shock as well, frozen still as a gun comes into view from a drawer. Taehyung only uses that gun when he is serious about a kill, although he barely goes out on a mission anymore. It’s his execution gun, and Yeonjun can’t be sure that he’s not the one who will be at the receiving end of the gun by the end of the day.</p><p>“Now I get why he’s giving you so much trouble, jun,” he gets up from his seat, turning to face Yeonjun. There’s a sadistic glint in his eyes, but his smile is child-like, as if he’s actually having fun for once.</p><p>“Let’s play chase.”</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>Beomgyu is running without any destination.</p><p>His cheeks are still stinging from the slaps he received from that lady, and his legs start to get tired from running and climbing up the staircases. Even worse, he doesn’t know where these paths lead him. He only knows that he has to save himself for once, even if it means that he has to use this gun to take another life.</p><p>“If you find him, don’t kill him. Bring him to me.”</p><p>There’s a voice at the end of the corridor, and then a lot of footsteps coming his way. He holds his breath as he slips back into the emergency staircase, making his way another level up.</p><p>He missed his chance to find the exit to the building, since the ground floor is littered by people who would be ready to catch him and put him back on that seat. His only escape is to go up and up, and he knows he will be doomed if he keeps going.</p><p>By the time he reaches the eight floor of this battered building, he trips on a stair and hits his nose on a sharp edge of the stair. It leaves him sitting there in tears, gasping for breaths and clutching the gun to his chest.</p><p>He is not even sure why he is even crying anymore.</p><p>It might have something to do with Taehyun. That lady from the basement showed him a picture of Taehyun, questioning if the kid had anything to do with the killing of the hitmen. No matter how many times he said no, and that there is no way Taehyun could kill someone, she just laughed at him because Taehyun had confessed and got ‘eliminated’ for that.</p><p>How someone gets eliminated in this business, Beomgyu doesn’t even want to know.</p><p>He would trade Taehyun’s life for Yeonjun’s anyday, especially after knowing that the hitman might have used his feelings to distract him from discovering his true nature. It’s really foolish of him to expect anything better from a murderer, especially one who used to hate him. It costs him Taehyun, and could have cost him Soobin if they didn’t mistake Kai for his bodyguard.</p><p>Even then, as he is burning from a newfound hatred for Choi Yeonjun, he still can’t stop thinking about him.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“So, you just somehow got over your fear of height?” Beomgyu had questioned him that night, as they stared down at the city from the observatory.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I spent a lot of time at various rooftops to practice my shot, it’d be funny if I’m still scared.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Still! You’re allowed to be scared of something, you know?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Height is just not one of my fears anymore. I actually grew to love it.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Beomgyu blinked at him. “How so?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“When you do the kill far from the ground, it makes you less attached. You just have to snipe the person, and you won’t have to see the light leave their eyes unlike when you’re in a close combat,” Yeonjun said, eyes glazed off with something indescribable. For someone who’s so proud when he declared to enjoy having a high count of kill, he didn’t look much like a cold-blooded killer. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>When he turned to look at Beomgyu again, it was with a smile on his lips. “Besides, the view is prettier from up high. You can see the stars and the city.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“So what, if I want to find you, I can just go upstairs to some random rooftops?” he tore his gaze away, almost shyly under the stare of the elder. It was still heavy on him even when he was not looking. That’s just how Choi Yeonjun looks at you, and there is no way to control the crazy way his heart beats inside his chest.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You may, if you wish for me, I’ll be there for you.”</em>
</p><p> </p><p>That sounds like a bunch of bullshits said to make him feel good and safe around the guy now that he can think with a mind that’s not clouded by his little crush. Brushing his tears away furiously, he snaps his gaze up. There are a few more set of staircases above him, and that’s just where he needs to go.</p><p>Just as he decides on it, he hears a movement a few levels away under him. Someone finally has a functional brain to think about searching the emergency staircase, and he is going to be trapped anyway.</p><p>Before that could happen, he is already back on his feet, thanking the existence of his sports shoes as a part of his gym class attire that he is more comfortable to run up the staircase. His chest tightens the closer he gets to the top, either with the loss of breath, fear, or expectation.</p><p>He wants Choi Yeonjun to be there, waiting for him to face his wrath. Yet a small part of his heart knows that he won’t be able to confront the guy, or even look at him in the eye anymore.</p><p>A few last staircases away from the door to the rooftop, Beomgyu finds himself wishing that no one is there. That he can just hide somewhere up there and wait for a miracle.</p><p>
  <em>“You may, if you wish for me, I’ll be there for you.”</em>
</p><p>As he stops right before the door, he tries to catch his breathing once again. A hand on the door, and his free hand is still holding the gun shakily. He bores hole to the door as he glares at it. The lock gives in under his push, and the night air welcomes him as he steps out into the rooftop.</p><p>He hates himself right at that moment, because he has the audacity to wish</p><p>
  <em>Please don’t be here for me.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. crying out (for him)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The whole mess started sixteen hours ago.</p><p>Soobin woke up with a start, in the darkness of his bedroom.</p><p>Instead of the ceiling, he was greeted by a scowling face staring him down. The pair of familiar plush lips pursed in distaste as the owner kept his gaze on Soobin, scrutinizing him.</p><p>“Guess I have no choice but to involve him as well. Are you sure he won’t accidentally kill himself?”</p><p>“Soobin is not stupid, you know?” that’s Taehyun’s voice.</p><p>“Stupid enough not to notice anything suspicious about you, apparently.”</p><p>Yeonjun left his bed, and it took Soobin a few more seconds before he shot up in his bed. The drowsiness started to leave his head, clearing up from the clouds of dreams as he shook his head rapidly. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he spotted a very unusual combination of Taehyun who was sitting near his bed and Yeonjun who was standing in the middle of the room.</p><p>“What’s going on?” he croaked out, voice still deep from sleep. He squinted at the clock, only to find out that it was just a few minutes away from 4AM.</p><p>“Nothing much, just got direct command from my boss to kill Beomgyu and Taehyun.”</p><p>“<em>What?</em>” he’s more awake now after hearing the answer.</p><p>The fact that Yeonjun’s face didn’t give away his intention – whether it was a joke or a real thing – was even more unsettling. Soobin swung the blanket off his feet, turning on the bed to sit on the edge of it as he stared at the two.</p><p>“This dumbass got caught not killing his target, and here we are now,” Taehyun said. It just added more to his confusion. At this point he felt like he might as well had been shot on the head instead of his abdomen because of the lack of his brain capacity to process the whole thing. “Sorry, I think I should’ve started from the beginning.”</p><p>Taehyun looked nervous now, toying with the fabric of his pajama pants. Soobin had been rooming with him for almost three years, and this was the first time he ever saw him looking this nervous. This, and that one time he accidentally confessed his crush. Even then, he went back to his usual self a few minutes after.</p><p>“I’m actually like Yeonjun,” he said, looking straight into Soobin’s eyes this time. “I mean, not anymore, but there was a time I gained money by killing people, too. Your roommate was a hitman.”</p><p>It was too much for his sleep deprived brain to process. He heard Yeonjun’s scoff, and he knew that he must have looked like a fool. As he was still stunned in silence, Taehyun took the opportunity to explain further about it, and by the end of it, Soobin finally got himself together along with three important points.</p><p>1) Kang Taehyun is a <strike>retired</strike> hitman</p><p>2) Taehyun knew that Yeonjun was in this school for a mission</p><p>3) Yeonjun is ordered to kill him and Beomgyu tomorrow.</p><p>“So… tell me why we are not knocking him out right now.” he said in the end, glaring at Yeonjun who only sneered at him. He wanted to punch the amusement away from his face.</p><p>Yeonjun laughed from where he was sitting on top of the study desk, tired out from the whole catching up. “Cause if I don’t show up there in two hours, they are just going to assign someone else for the task, and trust me, you don’t want that to happen.”</p><p>“What’s your idea, then? We’re just letting this happen?” Soobin shot up on his feet, lowering his voice quickly as he realized that he had been too loud. He exhaled in exasperation, staring at Taehyun. “Really?”</p><p>As if the information was not frustrating enough, now he had to deal with the fact that he couldn’t look at his roommate the same way anymore. From how Taehyun looked at him, he was also aware of it. The child-like innocence he always associated with the guy was replaced by something more alert, masking the exhaustion behind the pair of glasses.</p><p>“I’ll come up with a plan. Let me just… think.”</p><p>An apology was stuck on the tip of Soobin’s tongue as he watched his roommate walked past him, storming into their en-suite bathroom. He only does that whenever he is frustrated, and Soobin hated himself for piling the responsibilities on Taehyun’s back. Nothing was his fault to begin with, and history as a killer did not have anything to do with this mess.</p><p>The room was left in total silence as only the two of them were left in it.</p><p>Soobin was tempted to leave the room, urged by his worries for Beomgyu. He wanted nothing more than to storm into his best friend’s room and make sure that he was still alright, to keep it that way. For a second there, he forgot that he had been avoiding the said friend for the past few days.</p><p>He would have left, if only it was not for Yeonjun’s voice breaking the silence.</p><p>“I’m in love with him, you know?” that made Soobin froze before he could take a step to the door. He brushed his hair off his forehead, exhaling a short breath that sounded like a scoff.</p><p>Of course he knew that something was going on between the two. After spending most his life with Choi Beomgyu, the guy was like an open book to him. He knew from the way Beomgyu talked about Yeonjun that his interest was piqued, even before Beomgyu was aware of it himself. He knew from watching his best friend act around the killer; the secret, long stares he gave and the way he talked to the elder.</p><p>It hurt. It almost as painful as knowing that he failed to protect Beomgyu last time. On top of it, it also made his chest ache with a pleasant longing, seeing the sparks in Beomgyu’s eyes whenever he talked about Choi Yeonjun, even when he was complaining about the guy.</p><p>Soobin had been in love with Beomgyu for all his life, there’s no question about that. But he found out that he loved it more to see the bright smile subconsciously etched on his best friend’s face when he talked about the things he did with Yeonjun.</p><p>It’s cruel.</p><p>“I know,” he said simply.</p><p>That depleted his urges to leave the room. Instead, he threw himself back to sit on the bed, ruffling his already messy hair with one hand.</p><p>“No matter what I do, I’ll end up betraying him.”</p><p>Soobin looked up, staring at Yeonjun in the eye for the first time that night. “If you hurt him—“</p><p>“I <em>will</em> hurt him, but not in the way you are thinking,” he said, punctuated with a laugh as he saw Soobin’s wary look. “In the end, I’ll have to leave him. That’s the only way I can save him.”</p><p>“Choi Yeonjun, you…“</p><p>He shot back up on his feet, making his way across the room so he could grab onto the front of Yeonjun’s shirt. He could see him better this way, as the room was still only illuminated by their night light. This way, he could see the pain in Yeonjun’s eyes, before they morphed into anger as he slapped Soobin’s hands away.</p><p>“What do you think you’re doing, Choi Soobin? You should be happy that I’m gone,” he said, tipping his head back in a derisive laugh.</p><p>“You know how broken he’d be. You shouldn’t have made him fall for you in the first place!”</p><p>“You think I wanted this to happen?” the anger had reached its boiling point as Yeonjun also got onto his feet, now marching towards Soobin who recoiled. “The only way I can keep him alive is for me to disappear from the face of earth or die. I’m sorry that I don’t want to die?”</p><p>“You’re not allowed to die either! Why don’t you fight this agency of yours? Take it down!”</p><p>“It’s not that easy, damn it! That place is not only one single group that you can just eradicate. There are connections, underground business. You get rid of the surface and the illness will crawl out from within,” he sounded more frustrated than anger now, probably had thought about this alternative for millions of times as well. He didn’t look like he was going to punch Soobin anymore, at least, now pacing around the room. “This is the only way. And if you think I’m being an asshole for doing this, I hope you know that it kills me, too.”</p><p>Soobin shut up at this, pressing his lips together into a thin line. He didn’t know the details about the agency and the whole connection of hitmen, but he had always known Choi Yeonjun wouldn’t bring any good for them.</p><p>Even if he made Beomgyu smile like that, Choi Yeonjun is still a bad news.</p><p>“Why does it have to be you?” he pondered to himself, sighing in defeat as he went back to sit on his bed.</p><p>“I know, right?” Yeonjun said, already calmed down visibly as he managed to crack his annoying smirk.</p><p>That’s when Taehyun came out from the bathroom. He looked more composed now. His glasses were nowhere to see as he already switched into contact lenses. It only meant that things were going to be serious now.</p><p>He dragged the chair closer so they were sitting in a small circle.</p><p>“Let’s get to business.”</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>The plan commenced with a single text sent to Beomgyu’s phone, and then it quickly went wrong.</p><p>Soobin was supposed to be with Beomgyu when he received the text, but the universe didn’t seem to favour him yet again. Even before PE started, he was called to deal with the student council’s matters to the principal’s office, and by the time he was released, running until his chest about to explode from lack of breath, Beomgyu was not anywhere in the vicinity anymore. It was the first time he regretted pursuing his education seriously when his only concern should lie in the safety of Choi Beomgyu. Beomgyu wasn't even supposed to leave without him. How could this happen?</p><p>This was already his second failure as Beomgyu’s bodyguard. If Beomgyu didn’t come out of this alive, he wasn’t sure if he could forgive himself for yet another time.</p><p>“It’s okay, Soobin. We can improvise,” Taehyun said the moment he stormed into their shared room with fear written all over his face. Even as the guy tried to stay calm, he was not so convincing. “I’ll just have to go in on my own.”</p><p>“How are you going to get out alive?” he stayed frozen by the doorway, watching as Taehyun got up fastened his boots.</p><p>He looked different like this, clad in a tight black long sleeved shirt and a pair of combat pants. The pockets decorating the pants hid the holster of his gun perfectly. As he looked like this, he did give off a dangerous feeling. The same way Yeonjun did the first time they met. Never did he imagine that his roommate, the sweet yet snarky Kang Taehyun, to turn into this.</p><p>“There’s no other way. They’re waiting for me to turn up there, or else they will just end up killing those two since they have no other scapegoat,” he said, stopping right before Soobin. “I’ll have to trust Choi Yeonjun with my life.”</p><p>That made Soobin shut his eyes for a few seconds, trying to find it in himself to have as much certainty as he could see in Taehyun’s clear eyes. The plan was for him to be caught along with Beomgyu, and then Taehyun was going to sneak in with a façade to save his friends. They were all supposed to be caught, and the key to safety would be in Soobin’s hand.</p><p>He was supposed to break free from the restraint and hack the security system from the inside while Taehyun distracted his ex-agency. He would cause a commotion, giving enough time just for Taehyun to slip away. And he was supposed to be the one who protected Beomgyu through it all while Yeonjun dealt with his own mess of an agency.</p><p>It was a dangerous, almost impossible mission. Now it had even less chance to success with Soobin not being inside that hell hole.</p><p>Because of his fuck-up, Taehyun had to find a way inside the building on his own.</p><p>“Do you trust him?” Soobin questioned him as they were leaving.</p><p>“No. We are not supposed to trust each other. But what other choice do we have?”</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>His face was relatively calm when they reached the place, as if it was just another day of taking an examination at school.</p><p>Just as the male was about to leave the car, Soobin pulled on Taehyun’s hand, halting his steps to get his attention while they were still alone. Yeonjun’s in-ear was still turned off, which meant that he hadn’t got to his position and there was no way to let him know about the current situation. Beomgyu was somewhere inside the building. And now, Taehyun was about to go in.</p><p>Soobin had never felt so hopeless, not even that night he told Yeonjun to find Beomgyu. Funny how the same thing repeated, and he was still the only useless one.</p><p>“Are you going to be okay?” he asked.</p><p>“Am I? I’m going into that place to be killed,” Taehyun said, masking it with a laugh to make the mood lighter. But Soobin could feel his hand sweating through the contact of their hands.</p><p>“Yeonjun will know what to do.”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“I’m coming in for you, okay? Hang in there.”</p><p>Taehyun blinked at his words before looked up at him with a smile, finally releasing the hold on his hand as he was ready to exit the car. “I know. Thank you, Soobin-ah.”</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>Despite being the one who comforted the guy about Yeonjun, Soobin couldn’t help but to be nervous himself. His heart almost fell from its socket as he heard the sound of gunshot from his in-ear after what felt like centuries later, interrupting the conversation those people had in the room.</p><p>The long moment of silence almost killed him. It took him everything to stay still and hidden in the car, focusing on his in-ear that was connected with Taehyun.</p><p>“Taehyun, you okay? Tell me the dumbass didn’t shoot you for real.”</p><p>If Yeonjun had killed Taehyun…</p><p>Only as he heard movement from the other line that he could breathe properly again.</p><p> “I’m okay. He… that fucker shot me, but it’s okay. Nothing I can’t handle,” Taehyun said in a hushed voice. Even through the calm façade, Soobin could hear the shakiness in his voice, probably from holding back the pain. He’s bleeding, and there is no way to defend himself if anything goes wrong again. “Now give me the instructions to jam the security.”</p><p> </p><p>If everything was going according to their improvised plan, they should be on the last phase of this nightmare. Once the door was unlocked, he just had to find Beomgyu and extract him from the place, and Taehyun could make his escape.</p><p>Imagine his surprise when he heard Yeonjun finally speaking through his in-ear, only to bring them yet another bad news.</p><p>“This is not going according to the plan,” came Yeonjun’s voice. “He broke free. That idiot. He’s on the run now and Taehyung’s onto his ass. Fuck. He’s going to be killed.”</p><p>Taehyun cursed under his breath. “How are we going to find him now—nevermind. I’m going to unlock the building. Give me three minutes and you can come in, Soobin.”</p><p>He just needed Beomgyu to be safe until then.</p><p>His one wish was a challenging one since no one listened to his prayers. After the confirmation from Taehyun, Soobin slipped in quietly from the side door, making his way towards the basement where Yeonjun said to be the place for keeping the guys.</p><p>He easily took down a girl who screamed and attacked him the moment he came into the room, tackling her into the floor with a loud thud. Spotting the sight of dried blood and matted hair on her forehead, Soobin apologized quietly, just before his attention was stolen by another scream that echoed in the room.</p><p>Instead of Beomgyu, he found Hueningkai inside the room, tied to a chair and yelling at him.</p><p>“Beomgyu’s out there. He— I don’t know where he is. He hit that lady and ran away.”</p><p>“Why are you here?” Soobin tried not to panic as he marched towards the boy, quickly untangling the restraint around his wrists.</p><p>“He’s not supposed to escape! I already tipped the cops about this, but why are they not coming? Beomgyu’s supposed to just stay here until the cops are here, now that he’s out there—“</p><p>Soobin frowned, grabbing Kai on his shoulders to shake him a little from his little rambling. “What do you mean cops? Why are you even here?”</p><p>“I know everything about this plan. My dad hired the hitman, okay? The cops are supposed to be here and save us!”</p><p>As if on cue, there was a sound of siren from what felt like a mile away. But it might be too late. Beomgyu had slipped away through his fingers yet again and now he could as well be within the grasp of those people.</p><p>“Can you find Beomgyu? He—“as he tried to warn the other two guys connected to his in-ear, there was a sound of gunshot ripping the air, and he pulled Kai down to the floor. It was quickly followed by several random shots aimed randomly, probably to scare more than anything else. The in-ear fell off his ear as he struggled to pull Kai with him to hide behind the bar.</p><p>The guy was looking at him with his eyes wide with fear, meanwhile the gunshots had stopped, replaced by a loud laughter instead.</p><p>“Are you back in here Choi Beomgyu?” the male’s voice boomed in the room, as the smell of gun powder cleared out. “You should’ve just died quietly when we came for you. Now I’ll have to make sure that you die a painful death. And it’s not even for the money anymore.”</p><p>It must be someone from the agency. Someone dangerous, judging from how he had maniacally emptied his clip all over the room just for the purpose of scaring them. And it worked.</p><p>Soobin stayed there as his brain worked for a way out of this, and he was almost sent into despair as he heard a familiar click of a gun’s clip being changed into a new one. The guy would not hesitate to shoot him dead if he made a suspicious move. But he couldn’t just stay there and stare at the row of liquor bottles until death came for him first.</p><p>Before he could come up with a deliberate plan, Hueningkai was the one who made a move. The scared boy who cowered under the protection of his arm was now standing up tall. His fists trembling by his sides.</p><p>“There’s no Choi Beomgyu in here!” he yelled at the guy. “You’re going to be arrested. Both you and my father.”</p><p>There was a moment of silence, followed by another roar of laughter. “The young master himself, huh? Don’t you know that your father is doing this for you? If you would easily cooperate, you’d easily be the successor of two of the biggest companies in this country. Why are you acting up?”</p><p>“I—I never wanted that!”</p><p>“Perhaps you should be more specific when you told your daddy that you wanted to beat Choi Beomgyu. He might think you wanted your rival gone.”</p><p>Kai stood there stunned at that, at loss of words. Seeing his state, Soobin decided that he was not going to let this drag for any longer. He took out his gun from behind his vest, unlocking it as quietly as he could before he shot at the lights. The darkness unfolded in the room and he barely managed to pull Kai back into safety when the random shooting started again.</p><p>It’s frightening, dealing with someone who’s more dangerous than Choi Yeonjun. But he had to survive nonetheless. Both he and Hueningkai.</p><p>So this time, Soobin knew better than to stay hidden when he heard the click of an empty clip. He jumped out of his hidden place, eyes adjusted to the darkness just in time for him to catch the tall figure in the middle of the room. They crashed to the floor in a mess of limbs and punches. Soobin thought that he could feel the healing wound on his abdomen tear open again, but the pain never came as he was lost in adrenaline.</p><p>“Is that you, Choi Beomgyu?” the guy sounded too obsessed now.</p><p>It somehow made Soobin’s blood boil in his veins.</p><p>With a last surge of strength, he smacked the guy’s head against the floor, holding him down onto the floor with a knee pressed to his back. His gun was pointed against the back of the male’s head. “Beomgyu’s not here, but I think you might want to kill me too. I’m Choi Soobin.”</p><p>“Choi—“</p><p>“You’re too obsessed with my boss. I don’t like it.”</p><p>The sound of gunshot ripped through the darkness of the room just as the fight left the body pinned beneath his knee.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>The cold breeze of the night air welcomes him at first, followed by the dread freezing him to the core. Right there, across of him, is an unmistakeable figure of the hitman who he’d recognize anywhere. The leather jacket draped over his frame, the thick boots that make his legs look longer, the rifle perched on the edge of the building as his figure hunches over it.</p><p>Beomgyu wishes that the harsh wind beating him right now would carry his fear away, but it’s still stuck inside him, rattling his bones and making him tremble even as he steps forward. His teeth are gritted as he holds the gun up, thumb pressing onto the lock with a familiar click.</p><p>“Don’t you dare to move. I killed someone and I sure can kill your sorry ass right now!” he yells as he sees Yeonjun lifts his head.</p><p>There’s a short moment of silence before the hitman breaks into a loud laughter, his voice carried away by the wind.</p><p>“I can’t believe you really found your way here,” Yeonjun says, amusement dripping from his voice. “Wish you hadn’t.”</p><p>“You wish, huh? ‘cause I’m the only one who’s allowed to kill you.”</p><p>His heartbeat has slowed down and his breathing has levelled up at this point, so Beomgyu dares himself to take a few steps closer. His hand is steady as he holds the gun up, still pointing it right at the back of Yeonjun’s head. The wind makes his cheeks feel cold from the remnants of tears, but his eyes have dried up. There is no reason to cry anymore.</p><p>“Are you really here for that?”</p><p>“I’m going to shoot you if you don’t shut up.”</p><p>“You are, really?”</p><p>“Shut up!”</p><p>Beomgyu screams, only to lose his voice in a gasp when Yeonjun makes a swift turn. The rifle makes a swing for him, too fast for his reflex to react, that he can only watch in horror as his gun is slapped out of his hand. The said hand is now throbbing from the impact, and he stumbles back. Weaponless.</p><p>“Have anyone told you that you can be so noisy sometimes?” he takes a step forward. Much to Beomgyu’s surprise, he also throws his rifle aside.</p><p>“What—What are you doing?” he yells.</p><p>“Stop yelling!”</p><p>“Aren’t you supposed to kill me? Just make it quick. I don’t want to look at your face too long before I die.”</p><p>“What are you on about…” Yeonjun gives him an exasperated look for a second. His hand rises up to brush his hair off his face. It looks as dark as the night now, without any lighting from the sun.</p><p>Beomgyu misses seeing the guy in daylight, and he hates himself for that. He hates himself, and especially his heart, for still remembering the warmth he feels when he is around the hitman. Even as he is so close to death, he still can’t bring himself to hate Yeonjun the way he did the first time he saw him at his father’s office. What have the guy done to him?</p><p>“Please, just kill me quickly, don’t make me look at you again. I don’t want to remember. Please—“he hiccups as he brings his fists up to cover his face, squeezing his eyes shut so he doesn’t have to look at the elder.</p><p>The face looking at him right now is the same one that was contorted in pain as he took a bullet for him. It’s also the same one with the one that tried to comfort him when he had a breakdown in the middle of his living room. That’s the face of the guy who let him celebrate his uncle’s death and chased after him just to kiss him. It’s the same guy who took him out on a date, cooked for him and trusted him enough to see his safe place.</p><p>Just like what he told Yeonjun back at the observatory, he remembers the feelings, and he hates himself for that.</p><p>He hates Yeonjun even more when he feels the gentle touch of the elder’s hands curl around his wrists, trying to tug them away from covering his face. When they succeeded, he finds his teary eyes peer up at Yeonjun’s pained look, and he hates him even more for looking like that when Beomgyu is the one who should be hurting here.</p><p>“Can you listen to me for—“</p><p>Taking advantage of the closeness, Beomgyu shoots himself up, headbutting Yeonjun right on his face before he takes off for the door. He is filled by so much adrenaline that he feels it’s possible for him to get away. The door is just a few meters away, and he will be free from Choi Yeonjun.</p><p>Right before he takes a step down the staircase, Yeonjun caught up to him, pulling the door to slam it close. He almost bangs his face right into the solid wood of the door if only it’s not for Yeonjun’s hand holding his forehead.</p><p>“Can’t you listen to me?”</p><p>“No!”</p><p>“Fucking brat. You never changed.”</p><p>“Why would I listen when I’m about to be killed?” Beomgyu is still struggling to get away, biting on the hand and clawing on it.</p><p>Eventually, Yeonjun must be fed up, because he turns him around and pushes him against the door. A hand pressed over Beomgyu’s mouth to make him stop yelling.</p><p>Beomgyu looks at him with wide eyes filled with anger and unshed tears, but any resemblance of fear is drained off his system now as he looks at Yeonjun. Upon a quick glance, the male looks pissed off, right he wouldn’t hesitate to throw him off the building if he acts up again, but as he stares closer, Beomgyu can see that the intimidating look slowly melts into a tired, borderline pained one.</p><p>“You’re not even supposed to see me… <em>fuck</em>. You’re going to ruin everything. Why do you always ruin everything?”</p><p>Beomgyu tries to catch his breath. A shaky hand lifts up to tap on the hand over his mouth, and Yeonjun drops it after a moment of thought. He is holding the door close instead, trapping him with nowhere to go. But maybe he doesn’t mind that now.</p><p>“I ruin everything for you? You expect me to just sit there and take it when you’re being an asshole? How could you use me like that? Distracting me with your whole boyfriend act just so I won’t see your true colors?”</p><p>“Is that what you think of me?”</p><p>“That’s the truth, isn’t it? I used you, so now you’re using me back and we’re even? That’s not how it works. You’re a piece of shit and I’m—“</p><p>Right in the middle of his rant, Yeonjun straightened up suddenly, pressing a hand to his ear. It made him freezes right away, sensitive to any kind of movement that might result in someone jumping at him to stab him. Apparently it’s a call on his earbud.</p><p>He has the audacity to speak on a phone call when Beomgyu is lashing out at him.</p><p>“Okay, change of plan. Bring them upstairs because I have Beomgyu with me—I know, I’ll work it out somehow.”</p><p>Beomgyu watches him with deepening frown. Fear starts filling him again as he pieces up the puzzles, expecting a bunch of masked men turning up at this place anytime soon to end him or bring him downstairs for worse things. His heart makes a jump in his chest, and not in a good way, when he sees a familiar silver glint makes appearance on Yeonjun’s hand.</p><p>It’s his pocket knife. For some reasons it ended up in the hitman’s hands.</p><p>“I’m not going to kill you, and whatever you think I’m doing right now, please know that nothing went according to my plan,” Yeonjun keeps talking even as he unsheathes the blade under Beomgyu’s wary eyes. “It was never in my plan to fall in love with you, and it ended up becoming my downfall.”</p><p>Beomgyu is too stunned by his words to notice that the blade is not pointed at him. Instead, the handle is handed to him. Yeonjun’s fingers are closing around the blade the moment he reaches out for it.</p><p>The sharp silver is digging into his palm, inviting the appearance of the first crimson blood under the moonlight.</p><p>“What are you doing?” Beomgyu’s eyes start to sting again as the first drop of blood slides down the blade, dropping onto the floor. “H-hey. Choi Yeonjun, stop that!”</p><p>Even at the sight of blood and a gash painted across his palm, Yeonjun is still speaking calmly, looking straight into his eyes. “Tell them that you tried to fight me. You’re not supposed to be seen with me, dumbass. You’ll get in trouble for helping a murderer get away.”</p><p>“Choi Yeonjun, stop this!”</p><p>Beomgyu is holding a bloody knife. He can feel the stickiness of the substance as Yeonjun grabs his free hand, pulling him away from the door just as they can hear commotion from downstairs. So close to them. Dread fills him as Yeonjun’s eyes find his again, filled with urgency.</p><p>“Whatever you think I’m doing right now, please remember how you felt back then.”</p><p>Yeonjun opens the door, and Beomgyu suddenly doesn’t want to leave anymore.</p><p>“No, stop. What are you doing?” he yells, holding onto the hand.</p><p>“It’s been an honour to be used by you, Choi Beomgyu.”</p><p>Words are frozen in his tongue as he sees the pained look back in Yeonjun’s warm eyes. Then his hand is lifted, stained at some parts with Yeonjun’s blood. Before he knows it, Yeonjun’s plush lips are pressing a kiss on his knuckles.</p><p>“Yeonjun—"He’s still trying to make some sense out of everything when all the contacts are ripped away from him, including the contact of his feet with the ground.</p><p>Because he is being pushed backwards, into what feels like a bottomless pit as he can’t grab onto anything else. His knife clatters first on the floor before his body hits the bottom of the staircases with an immense pain shooting throughout his body. His head is throbbing, and he feels like he wants to throw up.</p><p>His chest hurts like it’s about to split open, but he suspects that it has nothing to do with the fall.</p><p>Whatever it is, he can’t think anymore. His sights are blurred and his hearings are distorted. He can mildly register the sound of the footsteps running up the staircases, passing him to go out to the rooftop, and then he feels a pair of familiar arms cradling him.</p><p>His face is mushed against someone’s chest. And for some reasons, he can recognize the sound of his heartbeats.</p><p>“He is injured! I’m taking him down now, please call an ambulance!”</p><p>Is that Soobin? Soobin is not running away at the presence of him. This must be a dream.</p><p>“Let me check if he broke something before we carry him down. Oh god, I hope it’s not his neck.”</p><p>Now he starts hearing Taehyun’s voice. Maybe he is dead, after all.</p><p>Everything is too good to be true, including the lack of pain as he finally succumbs into the darkness. Once again.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>Yeonjun’s plan was to stay hidden in the rooftop until everyone got to safety, and then he would make his own escape by the emergency staircase. His plan was to disappear from the face of earth so the agency wouldn’t be able to track him down. Knowing that they would be aware of his role to help Beomgyu stay alive.</p><p>Soobin didn’t know then, that the plan already failed by the time Beomgyu found his way right into Yeonjun’s hiding place.</p><p>“The cops are here and we haven’t found Beomgyu yet,” Soobin said to his in-ear as soon as he found it, leaving Kai back in the dark room while he blindly searched the building for the only person who mattered to him now. “I swear to god, if he—“</p><p>
  <em>“Okay, change of plan. Bring them upstairs because I have Beomgyu with me.”</em>
</p><p>“What—how? You’re not supposed to—“</p><p>
  <em>“I know, I’ll work it out somehow.”</em>
</p><p>The line was dead before he could say anything else. Everything was not going to the plan, but Yeonjun appeared to have a brand new plan, and Soobin could only trust him the way Taehyun did.</p><p> </p><p>He wished that he hadn’t.</p><p>That was his first thought as he went for Beomgyu’s limp figure on the bottom of the staircase while the officer team continued their ways up. And then he would regret it again later on, every time he saw the pain in Beomgyu’s eyes at the mention of Yeonjun.</p><p>
  <em>“Where is he?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“He jumped off the ledge!”</em>
</p><p>After all, he was the one who enabled Yeonjun’s escape from Beomgyu’s life. And as much as he wanted to be happy to drive the bad news away from Beomgyu, he couldn’t stand seeing his best friend cry.</p><p>
  <em>“It’s a ten story building!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Quick, go downstairs and check!”</em>
</p><p>Those conversations went by a blur to his ear, and he only got to think about it later on as the situation calmed down and Beomgyu was treated by the doctors. Yeonjun was nowhere to find on the ground after he threw himself off the rooftop.</p><p>It was the last time anyone ever caught a sight of Choi Yeonjun.</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>When Beomgyu wakes up, it’s almost as if he is swimming in a puddle of thick liquid.</p><p>In reality, he is on a hospital bed. IV needles disappearing into his numb skin to feed him whatever liquid he needs, yet he feels as if those tubes are sucking something out of his system at each second. All his emotions; the mix of anger, relief, and despair.</p><p>It’s so quiet in the room in contrast to the commotion he was in before he passed out. The quietness is maddening, to the point that he can hear the ticking of clock, and perhaps even the sound of breath entering his hollow chest.</p><p>Soobin is sleeping on the chair next to his bed. Head tipped back uncomfortably, yet his hand is holding Beomgyu’s, not losing its firmness even as he is asleep.</p><p>This is just what Beomgyu wanted as an ending when he considered the whole plan of hiring a hitman to do his dirty job. In the end it’s just going to be Soobin and him. He’s supposed to be happy, knowing that he doesn’t have to deal with his own conscience whenever he holds Yeonjun’s hand or think about kissing those addicting pair of lips.</p><p>Instead, he feels the familiar sting in his eyes, followed by wetness rolling down his cheeks.</p><p>Of course he is crying again.</p><p>Weak Choi Beomgyu who only knows how to cry his way out of something. At least when he is filled by sadness, he doesn’t have to be so empty in the chest. He can act like Yeonjun did not take his heart along with him when he jumped off that rooftop.</p><p>“Just… for the last time,” he promises himself.</p><p>Through his blurry sight, he noticed that his shaky hands have woken Soobin up from his sleep. The taller male is now staring at him with utmost concern in his eyes, but he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t need to. Beomgyu is not letting go of his hand, and that’s enough for him to know that he is needed where he is.</p><p>“Will you stay with me?” he asks, rather pathetically.</p><p>Soobin lifts their locked hands. For a split second, Beomgyu thought that he can still the trace of Yeonjun’s blood in his hand, can still feel the kiss pressed to his skin. When he blinks his blurry eyes, he can only see his best friend holding his hand, his gaze soft and full of promise, and he knows that he doesn’t need anything else.</p><p>“I’m staying. No matter what happens, I’m staying.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>i know this chapter is so chaotic and i have no excuse for it, also so so sorry for not replying to the comments from last chapter bc i don't know how to reply without telling you that tyun is not dead-- but i really enjoyed reading them aaa</p><p>anyway, epilogue next and this will end with 70k words ish! congrats for making it up to here T___T</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. time (will bring me back to you)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Yah! This is what you called an important deal? Use your brain for once to see that they are literally trying to blackmail us!”</p><p>Just another day full of shouts. It’s a normal sight to see in this particular corner of the building’s fifteenth floor, ever since the new chairman stepped up to fill his rightful spot under the scrutinizing glares of people who have wanted him to fall.</p><p>The youngest chairman in history also turns out to be the loudest one.</p><p>“That’s why we shouldn’t be too quick in turning it down. You see, they can drag us through the mud,” the middle-aged man in suit can only stand in despair on the other side of the large table as the chairman rips through the proposals he prepared. He is watching in horror as each piece of paper is thrown up to the air, before falling gently on the carpeted floor.</p><p>“Are you trying to order me around?” he freezes up when the young chairman shoots a glare at him, quickly shaking his head.</p><p>“No, of course not,” he voices out a fake laugh, which only fades away when the pair of sharp eyes are still shooting daggers at him. “<em>Sir</em>.”</p><p>“They want to play dirty, huh? Who do they think they are playing with?”</p><p>He throws the last paper in the air, a hand slamming down onto his wooden desk before the paper can touch the floor. The impact manages to rattle a few stationary tools on top of the desk, almost knocking off the acrylic name board proudly presented in the middle of the desk, facing the manager who’s shaken to his formal shoes.</p><p>Written in bold letter across the name board:</p><p>
  <em>Chairman</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Choi Beomgyu</em>
</p><p>No matter how you look at the chairman, he seems like a soft type of man you can push around to achieve what you want. That’s probably what expected by most of the appointed CEOs who have been waiting for the opportunity, except they have been put back into their positions beneath the chairman’s shoes upon hearing his self-introduction at the first board meeting he attended.</p><p>
  <em>“My name is Choi Beomgyu. I might be young, but I have a lot of experiences inside and outside of this field. If you think you can use me for whatever benefits you are trying to gain, please remember that I had seven people hired to kill me when I was 18, and I’m the only one who survived.”</em>
</p><p>This is how he can get away with acting like a brat at the top of the food chain. He doesn’t see anything wrong with that as long as he gets the job done, while also putting these money greedy people in their respective seats.</p><p>“My secretary will give you the number of my PI, and you’ll be in charge to contact that place,” he says, folding his fingers in front of his face to cover the curl of his lips into a smirk. He can’t look like he’s enjoying this too much. “Dig up their dirt and throw it back to their face. Remind them that we’re not one to be messed up with.”</p><p>“Y-your what?”</p><p>“PI! Private Investigator!”</p><p>“Isn’t that illegal?”</p><p>“Do I look like I care?” he shouts, flicking his hand to wave him towards the door. “Get it done within a week, or else.”</p><p>“Sir?”</p><p>Beomgyu turns his chair around to face the big window behind his desk. He is watching the sun shining dully through the tinted glass, acting like he’s scrutinizing something when he just wants to end the conversation. After a few seconds, he finally hears dull footsteps of the man walking away from his desk, and finally the sound of door being opened and closed.</p><p>“He left?” he turns his chair a little to peek, catching the eyes of his secretary who’s jotting down some notes by his desk. She nods. “Tell me I looked cool. I’ve always wanted to try that.”</p><p>Hyejin shakes her head, obviously trying to bite back her mocking smile. This girl can be obnoxious to her boss when she wants to, and that’s totally why Beomgyu picked him as Soobin’s replacement. The last thing he needs to be following him for most of his working hours is another hypocritical leech trying to suck up to him.</p><p>“You’re late for your lunch appointment with that representative from Huening—“</p><p>The name already makes his face twitch in irritation. “Why would I have an appointment with that guy?”</p><p>“You agreed to it,” she deadpans.</p><p>“That happened when I was in a good mood.”</p><p>“Well, put yourself in a good mood again, then!” She says a little too cheerfully, taking the suit jacket draped on the arm rest of his chair to spread it out, ready for Beomgyu to wear again. Beomgyu groans inwardly, taking a mental note to not hire someone who has a crush on his enemies next time.</p><p> </p><p>When he got to the restaurant, Huening Kai is already digging in on his dessert. He only regards him with a nod, not taking his attention away from his soufflé until Beomgyu takes a seat across of him.</p><p>“Why are you so obsessed with me?” he spits, folding his arms on top of the table as he stares intently at the other guy.</p><p>Kai lifts his gaze to look at him, still with that typical impassive expression of his. How the guy changes so little throughout the year still baffles him, not to mention that he is a lot taller than Beomgyu now, which irritates him further. Even after that incident of being kidnapped together, they still come out of it as a pair of sworn enemies. It’s a little hard to change that especially when Kai’s father was the one who wanted him dead, and got away with it unscathed.</p><p>But there were less moments of telling each other to <em>go away from me! </em>and more occasions where they sit down and talk about things until they started cursing each other again. It would be a lie if Beomgyu said that he’s not enjoying it, despite his attempts to turn down invitations and calls from the guy.</p><p>“Just want to catch up a little on life,” he says with a smile, which is fake no matter how you look at it. So, Beomgyu only stares at him for a few seconds until he gives in with a sigh. “Fine, my father is dying.”</p><p>The information makes Beomgyu swallow up whatever retort he had ready on his tongue.</p><p>“He’s old, so it’s inevitable. My sister is going to take over the chairman position, though, so we won’t be at the same level, sadly,” he adds with a small laugh.</p><p>No matter how Beomgyu wanted to succumb into the lighthearted mood Kai sets up, there’s nothing joyful about losing a parent. Now that he actually feels bad for the guy, he mildly wonders if he ever actually hated Kai.</p><p>“Your… your sister will be a better rival anyway,” he counters weakly, inviting a smile from the latter.</p><p>“True. He’s leaving me to deal with the underground business. The shady ones, can you believe that? The business politics are more complicated than I thought.”</p><p>Beomgyu toys with the waffles on his plate using the fork, barely eaten as he lost appetite upon hearing the news. Now he has to listen to Kai discussing about the rotten part of the business world that he is trying so hard to be left in the dark from.</p><p>“…the hitmen.”</p><p>That snaps him out of the distractions by his thoughts. He looks at Kai with his eyes wide, filled by curiosity. “What did you say?”</p><p>“Huh? I was talking about the agency who had this tight connection with my dad’s business. Remember the incident seven years ago? That night, some of the personnels were caught by the cops, but after that, the number of higher ups in that place keeps on decreasing gradually. Then one day it just, <em>poof</em>,” he makes a movement of an explosion by spreading his fingers out. “Gone. No more trace left.”</p><p>“Are you saying that it might be on purpose? Someone’s hunting them down?” he frowns, trying to process the information.</p><p>“I was thinking <em>you</em>.”</p><p>“What the heck—“ Beomgyu gives him a baffled look. “Do I look like someone who hunts people down in my free time… which I don’t really have?”</p><p>“Kind of. Or maybe just, karma.”</p><p>It’s not the two totally random guesses from Kai that got into his head, it’s the memory of a particular dark blue haired boy and a cocky smirk that suddenly show up in his head. It’s etched in the back of his eyelids as he closes his eyes.</p><p>Then he feels it, the shiver on his nape; the familiar sensation of being watched.</p><p>It’s not something uncommon, as he lives day to day being scrutinized by different sets of eyes waiting for his downfall. This time, it’s one that gets under his skin, making his blood boil in something darker than anger.</p><p>His fork falls loudly on his plate as he snaps his gaze out of the window. Too many people on the street, but no one pays attention to the couple of male eating together by the window of this cozy restaurant. Too many pairs of eyes, and none of them is the one he expected to see.</p><p>“Why? What is it?” he turns back to Kai’s confused gaze meeting him.</p><p>A swirl of nausea punches him in the guts, building up into a bigger wave that starts choking him. Suddenly, the waffle is not as appetizing anymore. “I need to go.”</p><p>Kai looks at him, frowning. “Are you okay?”</p><p>“I’m not really feeling well. Thank you for the lunch, though. Don’t invite me again,” he says, sparing a grin to the latter as he gets up and puts on his coat.</p><p>“Yeah, sure, cause next time we meet, it’s cause you’re the one missing me.”</p><p>Beomgyu just rolls his eyes, waving a hand nonchalantly at the taller male before he walks out of the place. It’s true that they constantly meet despite declaring their hatred every other day. He might even see Kai more than he sees Taehyun, or Soobin, nowadays. Ever since his best friend starts getting more occupied with his new business.</p><p>People are moving on, and Beomgyu feels like he is the only one who is suspended in a single spot.</p><p>A piece of him as left in that rooftop that day, leaving a hollow place punched into his chest. Every day, he is trying to live without that missing piece in his chest and he started to do well at that, and so many times he did try to fill it with trivial things, only to fail miserably.</p><p>Some days are just harder than the others, and today is the day.</p><p>The cold air of first autumn week hits him as he walks out of the restaurant, walking down the street towards where he parked his car. His lungs are filled with ice with every step that he takes, and eventually, he halts his step in the middle of the busy street. Chest constricted agonizingly as memories rush through his brain.</p><p>He crouches down right there, hugging his knees and hiding his face against his thighs, while footsteps keep going on around him. People swerve paths to avoid stepping on him, going on with their routines like there is no hinder on their path. He feels thankful that they let him be a part of the busy street, making him feel like he belongs in this busy place.</p><p>At least this way, he does not feel so lonely anymore.</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>That night, he finds his way to the house where he grew up.</p><p>The mansion is still standing tall, though with even less people stopping by the place. Soobin is the only one living in the place, as their parents left it under his name. The only memento Soobin would accept from the couple since he never wanted a piece of the company business or cash inheritance.</p><p>Beomgyu can actually stop by whenever he needs to. It’s still as much of a home to him as it is for Soobin, especially with the presence of the guy, being his alternative of <em>home</em>. But now he is living alone at the apartment he bought last year once he took over the company, succumbing into the lonely life so he wouldn’t have to rely too much on Soobin anymore.</p><p>Still, he needs the guy at times, especially when it’s getting to difficult for him to get through the day, just like today.</p><p>“Something went wrong?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Those old men are giving you a hard time again?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Your mood depleted for no reasons?”</p><p>“No…”</p><p>“What’s the matter, then? You won’t be doing this if you’re not feeling extra awful for the whole day.”</p><p><em>This</em> is happening in the form of Beomgyu’s arms wrapping tightly around Soobin’s waist, restricting his movement as he watches the meat sizzling on the burner. <em>This</em> is also Beomgyu pressing his face into Soobin’s back, basking in the comfort radiating from his safe place. <em>This</em> is Beomgyu taking advantage of Soobin, just like how it’s always been.</p><p>“It’s just been so long, I needed this,” he mumbles into the fabric.</p><p>The sizzling stops, and only now does he notice the scent of spices filling the kitchen. It reminds him that his stomach has been rioting for him to eat ever since he left his desert back during lunch time with Kai.</p><p>“Do you want me to take my position back at the company?” Soobin finally speaks again after a moment of contemplation.</p><p>Beomgyu quickly drops his arms at this, whacking him at the back. “No! You’re living your dream for once. Don’t ever think of going back.”</p><p>It’s just a few months ago that he let go of Soobin.</p><p>The first time he faced the world without the presence of his main pillar of support.</p><p>Last year, he had taken his position as the chairman under so much pressure, and Soobin was there as his personal assistant to make sure that he wouldn’t be alone when he broke under it. It’s not his responsibility, not anymore since he officially fired the male from being his bodyguard. Still, he stayed. All because of the silly promise he made back when Beomgyu was chained to his hospital bed.</p><p>That’s why he was so happy when Soobin quitted on him, saying that he wanted to try his luck to start his own business. Ever since then, they started to see each other less. He knew that Soobin started going on dates, too, and he couldn’t be happier for his friend.</p><p>Still, it’s lonely sometimes, that Beomgyu can’t help but to be selfish and insert himself again in Soobin’s life.</p><p>“But—“</p><p>“If you say anything about that again, I’ll stop coming here, and you will be banned from seeing me at the office,” he says coldly, turning around to leave the warmth provided by Soobin. He goes out of the kitchen, taking his wine glass from the dining table and downs the bittersweet alcohol in a go.</p><p>“Fine, I won’t.”</p><p>Soobin follows him out of the kitchen. It’s obvious from the presence of warmth on his back that the guy is so close to him again. His arms laid on the table on either sides of Beomgyu’s hips, and his chest nudging Beomgyu’s back.</p><p>“I promised you that I’m staying no matter what, so you just have to say the word, whenever you want me back,” he says. His breathing is soft against Beomgyu’s hair, before it suddenly lowers as he whispers into his ear. “I’ll always wait for you.”</p><p>It makes his chest jump, but more than anything, it’s a bone-crushing ache that he feels when he turns around to face him.</p><p>“Please stop waiting for me.”</p><p>It must have happened for too many times already that Soobin’s face stays unchanged. The warmth still stays in the pair of gentle eyes. “This is something that you can’t take away from me, Beom. I told you that no matter what happens, how many people I met and dated, I’ll always be in love with you.”</p><p>Beomgyu drops his gaze, worrying his lower lip between his teeth until it stings and he can taste the metallic taste of blood on his tongue.</p><p>“You don’t deserve this.”</p><p>Chuckling, Soobin runs his fingers through his hair, not pulling away and still smiling at Beomgyu.</p><p>“Still, huh? It’s been seven years.”</p><p>“I’m not sure either, it’s not like I’m waiting for him, but,” he freezes at that, tongue tied at the realization that he’s the one mentioning that person who should not be named. Even the mere thought of him makes him want to claw someone, just so he won’t have to feel this gnawing pain in his chest. “I just need a closure.”</p><p>“Why won’t you just let yourself be happy?”</p><p>“With you?” he cracks a smile, lifting his gaze to stare right into Soobin’s eyes this time.</p><p>For a split second there, he is actually considering it. How easy it would be if he could just drop the whole waiting game and start seeing what’s actually in front of him. And he knows that Soobin can see it too, drawn in his eyes, because the guy always knows what’s crossing inside his head. The connection is there, Beomgyu just has to give in, and <em>fuck</em>, he really wants to give in.</p><p>It’s the same connection he felt as that night seven years ago, as he sits down on the sand with his shoes full of sand. The one that he feels the moment he looked into the dark, feline eyes of that man, and anticipated his first kiss.</p><p>He knows that he’d never fall in love the same way he did when he was eighteen, with the ocean breeze messing up his hair and firecrackers in your hand. He’d never felt his heart fall the way it did when he was being chased, and the only thing he knew when he looked into the man’s eyes, trapped in his arms, was that he wanted to follow Yeonjun anywhere.</p><p>
  <em>Choi Yeonjun.</em>
</p><p>The name makes him jolt up like he’s being shot with a stun gun, and his hand comes up to push his wine glass to his mouth. Lips pressed against the rim. Whatever connection they had is broken as Beomgyu turns his head to take a sip of his red wine, ignoring Soobin’s soft sigh as he pulls away.</p><p>“Take a seat. I’m serving our dinner.”</p><p>He really does not deserve Choi Soobin in his life.</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>Beomgyu feels a lot better once he is back to his own apartment room. His stomach is filled with delicious food, and he caught up with Soobin on a lot of things.</p><p>Despite being busy, Soobin had time to keep up his connections with people. It’s proven by how he told him stories about meeting old friends from their high school, to attending blind dates, and visiting Taehyun at the hospital.</p><p>After their graduation, Taehyun had entered medical school, and basically removed himself from the society with how busy he was with his studies. The last time Beomgyu saw him was at the opening night of Soobin’s restaurant, and even then it wasn’t for long seeing that the guy was wanted at the hospital he started working at for his residency. Much to his dismay, it seems like the high school crush Taehyun was bearing for Soobin had waned off along with his busy routines.</p><p>Maybe he should pay a visit to the hospital just to tease him, Beomgyu takes a mental note as he removes his shoes at the door.</p><p>That’s when he noticed that something is off.</p><p>His shoes are neatly arranged near the doorway, and it’s not Monday. His caretaker only comes in on Mondays to clean up the place, and then Beomgyu would ruin it again by throwing his shoes anywhere when he comes in.</p><p>As he warily walks further into the place, his heart is pounding loudly. Nearly audible in the eerie silence of the vast, empty place.</p><p>He tries to tap into his emotions. Is it fear that he is feeling? What kind of thief would break into someone’s place just to fix the position of his shoes? The only plausible explanation is a serial killer with a weird habit, and Beomgyu really does not appreciate the thought of having such pervert inside his home.</p><p>“Yah! Whoever you are, you will be dead by the end of the night!” he shouts his bluff, hands clenched into fists on his sides. “I have a bodyguard, you can’t get me…”</p><p>As soon as the words escaped his lips, he also realizes that his voice has gone quieter, sucked dry of its earlier confidence. His legs are trembling a little as he dares himself to walk further into the place. He has his pocket knife out. The silver blade is always accompanying him at times like this despite proven to be no help at dangerous times. As proven countless of times by a certain hitman.</p><p>When he enters his small kitchen, the knife escaped his grip, clattering across the ceramics.</p><p>His eyes widen in horror as he stares at the mug placed on the counter. It’s a somehow familiar one. A mint coloured mug with a drawing of fish on its side. It’s a stupid detail that he couldn’t help but to notice, and all the fears he brought from the doorway dissipated from his system. It’s replaced by longing, a sudden rush of anticipation and anxiety as he walks closer to the counter.</p><p>When he takes the mug, he noticed that it’s filled with tea. The aroma of mint wafts through the air as he inhales a sharp breath. The mug is still warm under his touch, so it means that whoever it was sneaking into his place hasn’t left for long.</p><p>His heart beats against his ribcages for a whole new reason when he caught the sight of paper laid on top of the counter. It was trapped beneath the mug earlier, and now it’s displayed clearly. The familiar handwriting he still recognizes from a few years back.</p><p>
  <em>You know where to find me.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>No. He is not supposed to know where to find this person.</p><p>Why would he be so foolish to follow a track by someone who broke into his apartment? For all he knows, this could be a trap from people who still want him dead, if there’s any. The least he could do is to call a cop for the break-in, or tell Soobin about the message. The guy always knows what to do.</p><p>Instead, he finds himself speeding through the highway, with only one destination in mind.</p><p>“Please don’t be here,” he whispers to himself the moment he abandons the car outside the place.</p><p>It appears that he’s too late, because the place is closed for the day already. Even as he thinks that way, his legs are not cooperating with the rational part of his mind, urging him to run inside because <em>someone</em> is waiting for him. It only takes one phone call and the right amount of bribing to be let into the tourist attraction site. It’s amazing, what you can do when you are at the top of the food chain.</p><p>The city forest is dark and deserted, giving him chill as he walks through the dark path towards the building. The chill is nothing compared to the pounding on his chest and shivering on his spines as the elevator brings him up diagonally. And then he is there, alone in the darkness of the observatory with the city lights greeting him when he gets closer to the transparent walls.</p><p>Being there brings back pieces of memories from when he was still in high school. A foolish teenager who fell in love with someone who was supposed to kill him.</p><p>It’s really not as romantic as described in teen literatures.</p><p>Still, as he stands there in the darkness, he can feel the warmth of Yeonjun’s hand holding his. He can smell the musky wood cologne from Yeonjun’s leather jacket. He can remember the touch of Yeonjun’s lips on top of his own.</p><p>All the nostalgic thoughts are ripped away from him when the silence is broken by a particular sound. A familiar cocking of a gun’s safety lock. Beomgyu freezes on the spot. His hand held halfway up to touch the glass.</p><p>From the reflection, he can see a shadowy figure behind him, holding a gun against his back.</p><p>“Didn’t I tell you that someday you’d wish you had been more bearable, when I come back to kill you?”</p><p> </p><p>==</p><p> </p><p>For seven years, Choi Yeonjun had been the most wanted person in the country.</p><p>It’s not easy to hide from both the good and bad side of the society, but it’s a little more bearable when you have too much money in your saving accounts. That’s how he managed to stay in hiding for years, ever since that day.</p><p>After watching Beomgyu fell down the staircase, Yeonjun didn’t stay around to welcome the police officers. He ran to the edge of the rooftop, deciding to try out an invention he stole from the agency’s storage room. He hurriedly wrapped the thick black wire several times around his arm, feeling it digging into his skin through his jacket when he tested the strength. The wire tied up to the safety bar of the rooftop, and no matter how much you look at it, he is risking his life by trusting this product.</p><p>He didn’t have the chance to doubt it. When the first cop appeared at the doorway, locking gaze with his own, he launched himself off the edge of the ten-story building just by the support of some shady wire invention around his arm.</p><p>It carried him smoothly down the side of the building; his fear numbed by the adrenaline rushing through his system. The wire snapped just before he reached the ground and he found himself sprawled on top of the pavement at the back of the building.</p><p>He almost gave in to the urge to black out right there, if only it was not for the presence of another set of footsteps chasing him.</p><p>With his body still stinging all over from the fall, he made a run for it.</p><p>Onto his plan to disappear from the face of earth.</p><p> </p><p>When he showed himself to someone as Choi Yeonjun again, it was nearly five years after that.</p><p>Despite being in ‘hiding’, he was mostly hunting down the rest of the hitmen from the agency. That day, the operation had managed to throw some people in jail, which resulted in some cold cases being closed especially with the archive they found from the offline database. Not guarded too safely despite the agency being one of the biggest ones in the city alone. However, they barely scraped the surface, since such a big organization would be so deep-rooted, not consisting only of these few people who Yeonjun had called his ‘family’ once.</p><p>The ‘family’ he had betrayed for his own benefits.</p><p>So, he spent all those years hunting down the rest of the people. As long as the organization still existed, he could never live safely. A traitor who quitted the agency would be hunted down for a painful death, he could just imagine what those people would do to him.</p><p>When he saw Taehyun, it was with a bleeding long gash sliced across his stomach.</p><p>It was not something he could fix with a band-aid, which was why he risked intercepting the poor guy on his way back from the hospital he started working at.</p><p>Taehyun didn’t even question him, just gesturing to follow him to the goshiwon he stayed at. He stitched up the wound silently, bloody tissue papers scattered around him on the bed as Yeonjun lied down there.</p><p>“Please tell me you’re not showing up in my life to wreak havoc again,” he said only after he was done with the job. The wound stinging dully when Yeonjun sat up, watching as the guy tidied up his medical tools.</p><p>“No. Not yet, at least.”</p><p>“It’s whatever, but you owe me one again. I haven’t even claimed my benefit from the last time I helped saving your life.”</p><p>Yeonjun snorted. “Fine. Name it.”</p><p>“Choi Beomgyu.” The name made him freeze, forgetting all the offers he was going to make to pay Taehyun for the favours. He stared at the younger who didn’t meet his eyes. “Are you really not planning to see him ever again?”</p><p>The thought pained him more than the wound on his abdomen. For years, he had resisted to even <em>think</em> about the guy, not wanting to break down and drop everything just so he can see him. He knew that if that happened, he was just going to mess up his whole plan again, just like when Beomgyu messed up his life the very first day he stepped into Yeonjun’s life.</p><p>“Not today. Not anytime soon.”</p><p>Taehyun returned his gaze for a long moment of silence before nodding. “So it’s not a no.”</p><p>“I’m still killing people, T. I need to hunt these people down before I can live normally, and there’s no way he can see me this way.”</p><p>“He fell in love with you when you were out killing people for him.”</p><p>“We’re not teenagers who make bad decisions anymore, now,” Yeonjun laughed. “At least when I show up again, I want to be a decent man for him.”</p><p>“Even if he ended up moving on already? He’s not going to wait for you forever.”</p><p>“Even then,” he said. A tiny smirk curling on his lips. “I’ll just have to steal him again.”</p><p>Taehyun shook his head, getting up from his seat to fetch something from his wardrobe. He threw a clean shirt at Yeonjun’s face. “You’re an awful man, Daniel.”</p><p>Yeonjun can’t agree more with that statement.</p><p> </p><p>He is an awful male for doing this to Beomgyu.</p><p>As he was nearing the end of his mission to hunt down the rest of the hitmen from his agency, Yeonjun had set up a new office for his day job. It’s not a common or popular job that will earn him a lot of money. The job only exists when people are looking for him.</p><p>He had set up a fake identity of himself as a Private Investigator, and Beomgyu’s company had made contacts with him several times to do their dirty jobs.</p><p>Once again, it consists of several stakeouts and stalking in order to dig out information. The stark difference is that this job does not require him to kill anyone, only kill them slowly by gathering those dirt that would eventually be used to ruin their lives.</p><p>Some days when he is free, he would allow himself to look at Beomgyu,</p><p>The first time the guy noticed him is the day he went out to eat with Huening Kai, and unknowingly he had locked eyes with Yeonjun who had been staring at him from across the street from the restaurant. Right that second, he makes a call to Taehyun, sitting on his motorbike while stealing glances at the guy.</p><p>“Can you tell me where Beomgyu lives?”</p><p>There are some rustling noises, and then Taehyun responds to him properly. <em>“Finally? Shouldn’t you message him first or something? I feel like he might kill you if you just show up unannounced.”</em></p><p>“Haha,” he laughs sarcastically. “Will you just text me the address? I will drop a message for him.”</p><p>
  <em>“What are you planning? Don’t bother contacting him again if you’re not planning to stay.”</em>
</p><p>“I’m not just planning to stay. I’m going to make sure that he can’t get rid of me.”</p><p>Taehyun scoffs, sighing in what sounds like defeat.</p><p>
  <em>“What took you so long?”</em>
</p><p>“The urge to be good for him?” he answers doubtfully, finally shaking his head as he watches Beomgyu leaves the restaurant. His eyes following the guy until he disappears in the corner of the street. “Then I realized that it will never happen, so I’ll just make sure that he is bad enough to want me again.”</p><p><em>“You really are an awful man.”</em> Taehyun says, but he still texts him the address once he hangs up.</p><p> </p><p>He’s just proving it right, because the first thing he does when he deems himself ready to see Choi Beomgyu again is to break into his apartment. The second thing is pointing a gun at him, as they stand at the supposedly most memorable place for them.</p><p>“Didn’t I tell you that someday you’d wish you had been more bearable, when I come back to kill you?”</p><p>There’s a long moment of silence, that Yeonjun can only stand there awkwardly with his whole stupid acting. Beomgyu stays frozen there, looking out through the glass, and giving no indication of hearing him until he suddenly drops in a squatting position.</p><p>Suddenly he is the eighteen years old Choi Beomgyu again, hugging his knees and pressing his face against his thighs. It breaks Yeonjun’s heart to see it, just like those nights he spends thinking of Beomgyu and all he can remember is his tear stricken face as he asked Yeonjun to kill him, the last time he saw the guy at the rooftop.</p><p>“Hey, I was joking—“</p><p>“You’re really not here to kill me?” Beomgyu asks, his voice muffled by his position.</p><p>Yeonjun sighs, locking his gun back and slipping it back under his jacket. “I admit that it wasn’t the best joke but hey, I didn’t know how to suddenly show up after so long.”</p><p>“Can you come closer, then?” his voice shakes as he says that. “I… I missed you so much. But it hurts. I’m so scared.”</p><p>Feeling bad for bringing some bad memories back for the poor guy, Yeonjun obliges to the request. He slowly makes his way forward, a hand reaching out for a comforting gesture. One second, he is about to pat Beomgyu’s shoulder, and the next thing he knows is that he’s already sprawled on the floor, cheek stinging.</p><p>He is not granted the time to realize what’s happening when Beomgyu sits on him, pulling on the collar of his shirt and shaking him. Anger is evident in his face, burning in such intensity that Yeonjun should be running away right now, but there’s a poorly masked sadness beneath the pair of narrowed eyes.</p><p>It reminds him of the first time he saw Beomgyu in his father’s office, tied up to a chair while forced to look at this teenager whose burden is too heavy for his small body to carry. His eyes were like this too back then. Fierce and solemn.</p><p>And he is still the most beautiful person Yeonjun has ever seen, even in the new version of him.</p><p>“Why do you have to come back? Why can’t you just stay in hiding forever like the coward you are?” Beomgyu screams at him, still pulling on his shirt and shaking him. “Seven fucking years and you still have the audacity to show up? Who do you think you are?”</p><p>There are no tears running down Beomgyu’s face, but it still hurts seeing him like this. So much pain carved into his eyes.</p><p>Yeonjun didn’t know what he expected when he showed up. He couldn’t expect Beomgyu to wait for him for so long without any notice or indication that he was going to come back. Their last meeting ended with him injuring the guy, followed by his disappearance.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” that’s the only thing he can offer.</p><p>“Do you think you can casually walk out of my life and then walk back in whenever you want to? If so then you’re so wrong! You’re so full of yourself, Choi Yeonjun!”</p><p>“I’m sorry.”</p><p>“No single message for! seven! fucking! years!”</p><p>He punctuates each sentence with a punch to Yeonjun’s chest, which he just takes without any complaint. He will accept them. All the shouts and punches. If it means that there is a way to make Beomgyu forgive him.</p><p>“I’m so sorry.”</p><p>“Stop saying that, dammit! You’re not even explaining yourself!” he shouts for the last time before dropping forward, face tucked against Yeonjun’s chest and fingers still fisting Yeonjun’s shirt. Yeonjun can feel his thighs shake from where they are bracketing his sides, either from anger or sadness. He hates both options.</p><p>He lets Beomgyu pants into his chest until his breathing evens up, and he dares himself to bring himself up. His fingers find their way into Beomgyu’s hair, brushing the strands gently.</p><p>“Whatever excuse I come up with, none of those would make me more deserving of your forgiveness. But I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere until you look at me the same way you looked at me back then,” he cups Beomgyu’s cheeks, bringing his face up to look at him. “It will be my last mission, to make you love me again.”</p><p>Beomgyu’s eyes start to water as they stare into Yeonjun’s. Memories are swimming inside them, alongside of despair and longing, and most importantly <em>hope. </em>It’s that last thing that keeps Yeonjun grounded there, promising himself to never leave this boy ever again. In this dark observatory, he allows them to just be 20 years old Choi Yeonjun and 18 years old Choi Beomgyu again. Now finally deserving to <em>love.</em></p><p>And then the connection is broken when he lands another punch to the elder’s chest.</p><p>“Fuck you. I was never in love with you.”</p><p>At that, Yeonjun shakes his head, catching Beomgyu’s hands just before another punch could be landed on him. He keeps a firm hold around both wrists, pulling on them to make Beomgyu stumble forward so he can stare closely into his eyes.</p><p>“Say that again, and actually mean it when you do.”</p><p>“I meant it,” he whispers.</p><p>The way his heart is beating so hard against his chest, to the point that Yeonjun can feel it, is not helping him with his lies.</p><p>“Say that you didn’t love me.”</p><p>Beomgyu glares at him, pulling on the restraints on his hands before he eventually gives up with an exasperated scream. When the room goes quiet again, it leaves them with a very soft voice coming out from Beomgyu’s lips.</p><p>“I wish I was never in love with you,” he says. “Cause I didn’t know how to stop.”</p><p>“Please don’t ever stop.”</p><p>“Choi Yeonjun—“</p><p>His voice is swallowed by the silence of the room when Yeonjun brings one of his hands up, pressing a kiss to his knuckles. It’s something that he did back then at the rooftop, but this time there’s no hurry, and they have all the time in the world. If only Beomgyu would take him back, even though that would be asking for too much.</p><p>“Please grant me the honour to be in love with you this time, and be loved back in return.”</p><p>The trace of anger is still present in Beomgyu’s face, but it’s not in his eyes anymore. Instead, Yeonjun can only see the stars making their way back into the pair of eyes, faintly but evident enough, highlighted by the glow of the city lights from behind him. Yeonjun knows that he would give everything to make them spark for him again.</p><p>He will have a lot of time to accomplish the mission, now that the time is really theirs, and he is not borrowing it from anywhere.</p><p>The seven years of hunting down people and becoming the worst version of himself is just for this purpose. This privilege of living as someone who can love Choi Beomgyu the way he deserves to be loved.</p><p>As he’s lost in thought, Beomgyu managed to pry his hands away from his hold. He thought that Beomgyu is going to leave him right there. But he just stays there, bringing his face closer. So, so close that he could kiss him if he just leans in for a bit.</p><p>“I hate you so much,” is what Beomgyu says. The words caressed his lips, tempting him to give in, before all the contacts are abruptly ripped away from him when Beomgyu gets up to walk away.</p><p>Well, that’s a start.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>SO.... this is really the end.<br/>Thank you for everyone who's been reading and supporting this until now despite this being my chaotic attempt to write something of an action(ish) genre. It makes me happy that anyone would actually read my writing and wait for updates! And since it's the end, as usual, feedback would be appreciated and you can also tell me what you like and what didn't meet your expectations so I can do better for my next attempt!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>tell me what you think!!</p><p>  <a href="https://twitter.com/soogyulvr">twt</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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